Thank fuck for that. With any luck the better conditions will even give them the power to push back on management if management demands something stupid be added to a game.
In an industry as notoriously dreadful as game development, every bit of quality of life counts.
Maybe they can start making good games again
Nah man, I want the same tired design as we’ve had for the better part of twenty years!
I COULD EAT SWEETROLLS ALL MY LIFE
*Presses jump button for no reason*
*Presses interact button to vault over obstacle*
“God do I love these game mechanics”
How are the decisions taken by the highier-ups related to workers unionizing?
Hell yeah. Hopefully this will improve the quality of their games as well
✊
In other news, Microsoft shuts down Bethesda game studios…
Microsoft has actually voluntarily recognized a gaming company union before. It seems they prefer to voluntarily recognize the unions and then fight them during the contract phase, not sure exactly why they do it this way instead of trying to stonewall the first step like most companies.
Maybe they try are trying to avoid some additional scrutiny by letting the union exist?
Oh this could definitely be it, let the union exist, get the good press, and then fuck them hard in contract negotiations.
I think it might be more subtle than that, unions exist so that when negotiations happen they can fuck back, but we know Microsoft can strategise longer term than that. They pioneered “embrace, extend, extinguish”. Embracing a union then trying to infiltrate and turn it into a corporatised union is another version of that exact same play.
Companies can leverage CBAs to “fix” pay scales well below CPI or other metrics by forcing extensive negotiation as a way to sell down an agreement. Similarly, they can use agreements to create separate classes, for example: the SAG/AFTRA agreement for voice actors with all the Gen AI exemptions.
Fuck yeah
I wonder where a union draws its power from in an industry where there are so many people desperate for work right now.
Trade unions make sense because there’s such a shortage of skilled workers in total, much less scabs. How does a union for such a well known legacy game developer sustain itself in an environment where I bet scabs would be in abundance?
Maybe for Bethesda specifically, there’s also a shortage of skilled work? I mean, they often hire modders and Creation Engine STILL uses flash (Starfield’s menus are .swf files),
Creation Engine STILL uses flash (Starfield’s menus are .swf files),
YOOOOOO WHAT THE FUUUUCK.
Seriously, how hard is it to change the UI to use JS?? They really go through old ass Adobe documentation whenever they make a new menu with AS3???
I seriously hope it’s all AS and compiled to SWF, if they’re running some fucked version of Adobe Flash to make the swfs by hand, 💀
Seriously, how hard is it to change the UI to use JS??
JavaScript can do animations without wanting to commit suicide?
With some jquery, yes. Without it, suicide feels like a release
I don’t know about the details, but I found that out while browsing the menu mods, as the Undelayed Menus, which removes the pointless delay in opening and closing of menus, comes with a bunch of .swf and that was when I thought to myself “You have to be fucking kidding”
Checking any other menu mod, it’ll be .swf files.
Yea, they probably have that one guy still there from the days creation engine was made that is required to be on staff for any future games to fix whatever archaic code they break. Get him on board with the union and Bethesda is probably held by the short hairs to do whatever they say.
I wonder where a union draws its power from in an industry where there are so many people desperate for work right now.
With more than 450 employees, you can’t really replace all that on the fly.
