The United Kingdom's (UK) video game industry witnessed an increase in union memberships among video game developers, in response to the industry wide layoffs that occurred throughout the past year. Read on to know more.
Game Industry Layoffs Spark Surge in UK Game Union Memberships
Union Membership Increased Nearly 50% Between December 2022-2023
The Game Workers branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) experienced a nearly 50% increase in its membership between December 2022 and December 2023 amid layoffs ramping up in the gaming industry, as reported by The Guardian. Notably, in October 2023 alone, membership spiked by 12%.
Approximately 900 out of an estimated 11,100 job losses in the workforce last year were within the UK's gaming sector, according to Ukie, the main video games industry body in the UK. Head of the IWGB Game Workers branch, Austin Kelmore, commented on the surge in union memberships, "It’s felt like a deluge of redundancies in the past five or six months. It just keeps coming and coming. And with this wave, I’ve seen people saying ‘we need to join unions’. Our membership went through the roof. We had the largest growth of new members in any month in our five-year history at the end of last year."
Several prominent game development studios in the UK were affected by the wave of layoffs, including Codemasters, developer of racing games 'F1 23' and 'EA Sports WRC,' and Creative Assembly, developer of 'Total War: PHAROAH'. Additionally, Bossa Studios, developer of 'Lost Skies', experienced layoffs in the first week of January 2024.
Ukie co-CEO Daniel Wood acknowledged the challenges faced by the industry, stating, "It has been difficult to hear of the job losses in the video games sector over the recent few months. Our analysis suggests this is a rebalancing following successive years of significant growth during the pandemic." Wood stated that they are commited to ensure the UK "remains a great place to start and scale up games businesses," and called on the UK government to support these efforts.
Previous reports from industry leaders suggested that layoffs in the gaming industry witnessed in the previous year will persist throughout 2024 and possibly into the next year.
Source:
Video game developers union membership in UK soars after thousands laid off
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