CWA Hosts Game Developer and Video Game Advocacy Summit with IGDA

On October 30, CWA hosted a half-day virtual summit in collaboration with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) to feature key results from the most recent IGDA Game Developer Satisfaction Survey and to highlight the voices of video game workers and advocacy organizations across the video game industry.

The first panel, led by Western University Associate Professor Johanna Weststar and King’s College London Senior Lecturer Jamie Woodcock, was a discussion on the state of the industry amid a year of record layoffs and a growing trend of video game organizing.

“The current wave of [video game] unionization began in 2018. But what we’ve seen is a real spike in collective action from 2018 until now with the start of Game Workers Unite as an international movement for unionization,” said Woodcock. “What we’re seeing overall is a really interesting case study of what happens when workers decide that they want to unionize internationally and then decide what it means to unionize in a national context.”

Following their conversation, IGDA Executive Director Dr. Jakin Vela facilitated a roundtable panel on “Shaping a Sustainable Future for Game Developers,” where video game organizers and advocates shared their experiences building worker power and hope for the future.

“When you are functioning inside a structure that is so beyond your reach, you must do everything you can to affect your immediate surroundings,” said panelist and CWA Local 9510 member Em Geiger about organizing at the developer level. “It is entirely about community and talking to one another.”

A full livestream of the summit can be found here.