// KOTAKU — GAMING
Inside The Failed Fight To Unionize One Of Gaming’s Most Idealized Studios
“A lot of people are saying that it’s time the games industry was unionized,” said Tim Schafer. “They say people who make games are overworked, underpaid, and taken advantage of. What do you think?”
An audience of hundreds of game developers began to awkwardly chortle and groan in response to this question, posed by Schafer at the 2019 Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) in San Francisco, California. He continued, “I am not anti-union, but I don’t really think we need ’em, guys. I mean we’re doing fine, right? We’re all great here, and in this show, and no one here is union—oh, God.”
The spotlight on Schafer suddenly went out, leaving him in darkness. The audience laughed, this time heartily. “That’s right, except for the lighting crew, I forgot they’re all union. Okay, you guys-“
Schafer kept speaking, but his words became undistinguishable as his mic was tuned to make him sound like a squeaky cartoon character who’d gobbled up too much helium. More laughs from the audience as Schafer continued speaking, seeming to apologize to the audio people as well. As he continued, the video screen behind him changed from the GDCA logo to a black screen with the words, in all-caps, scrolling by over and over: UNION! UNION! UNION! The audience began to cheer.
Schafer’s mic went back to normal: “I hear you, I hear you, this is a union show, and we’re better for it. Fine, all right? Thank you. Thank you Local 16. I guess there are unions all around us, and we somehow live to tell the story.”
Over seven years later, Schafer’s own long-standing studio, Double Fine Productions, still doesn’t have a union. It almost did, earlier this year, when a majority of eligible employees filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to start one. But the petition was withdrawn just two weeks later, leaving those employees union-less just a month before its then-parent company, Microsoft, enacted a devastating, Xbox-wide reorganization plan.
Microsoft cut Double Fine loose from the stability of first-party studio membership to pursue its own destiny, adrift financially with its games and IPs, yes, but limited financial runway. 23 people were laid off shortly after, including all eight of the union organizers who’d signed their names on the union petition withdrawal letter to the studio.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m trying to influence anybody,” Schafer told me in September. “I would say in general I’m pro-union and I think the games industry treats people terribly, and I can see where the need for protection comes from. I mean the game industry in a lot of places crunches people, burns them out, then lays them off, and it’s like…any time a union activity starts, I feel like the industry has been asking for it by the way they treat employees.”
Significant parts of the game industry have unionized, including Sega of America, and multiple massive teams within Microsoft/Xbox, including Zenimax and Blizzard. So why didn’t it work at Double Fine? The answer depends on who you ask. I spoke to 15 current and former Double Fine employees on all sides of the union fight, reviewed Slack messages from throughout the brief but explosive two-week-long union campaign, and spoke to Tim Schafer in person at PAX West to hear his perspective on what happened.
Six months later, the only thing that’s not in dispute is that labor organizing at one of the video game industry’s most progressive studios has stalled, and in the wake of the failed effort are feelings of grief, confusion, and betrayal.