It’s long been an open secret in the video game industry that the prestigious developer Rockstar embraces overtime, and a new quote from company co-founder Dan Houser about Red Dead Redemption 2 caused controversy this morning by suggesting that it took 100-hour weeks to make. In a new elaboration to Kotaku, however,…
Video games are an expensive hobby, often demanding a great deal of trust whenever you buy a new one. Buying a game winds up being a number of things. A purchase is a gamble. It’s an encouragement. It’s a participation in exploitation. And it’s a conversation with the many people who brought you the game.
Today is Prime Day, the Amazon-invented international shopping holiday that involves offering extensive deals on the digital storefront’s products. Amazon workers across facilities in Europe are celebrating this artificial holiday with a multi-day strike, and I’ve decided to join them in my own way.
The strike at strategy game makers Eugen Systems based in Paris ended earlier this month. With negotiations going nowhere, the striking workers—close to half of the studio—decided to pursue the matter in court. “We will continue to fight for our rights with the legal means at our disposal,” they said in a statement.
Félix Habert is a game designer and staff representative at Eugen Systems, a small French studio behind several well-received strategy games, including the recent Steel Division: Normandy 44. He joined the company as an intern five years ago, but walked out last month alongside 20 other employees because of unpaid…
Félix Habert is a game designer and staff representative at Eugen Systems, a small French studio behind several well-received strategy games, including the recent Steel Division: Normandy 44. He joined the company as an intern five years ago, but walked out last month alongside 20 other employees because of unpaid…
As more and more money has flooded into the esports industry, player rights have been a hot topic across multiple games. Careers in esports can be extremely short, making it all the more important to ensure that players receive their fair share of the profits their work generates. With that in mind, Riot Games,…
Earlier this week, Smash 4’s top player admitted he was overwhelmed: “We really need an off season,” Gonzalo “Zero” Barrios wrote on Twitter. “Committed players are traveling the whole year [with] no breaks.” The conversation snowballed. Fans, tournament organizers and fellow players noted that, to organize an off…
Earlier this week, on Fiverr.com, I selected Biu’s “Basic” package which, in exchange for $5, granted me her company for five Overwatch games. In her profile’s image, a helicopter selfie, Biu is wearing a t-shirt with Zelda’s Link and sticking out her tongue. “If you want a good healer,” her gig page reads, “I’m a…
Unique to the digital age is the video content creation industry, one where employees are “users” and employers are “platforms.” In it, workers aren’t owed squat. When there are tech issues, they can visit the support page. When there are platform updates, a lot of the time, the press knows first. Full-time YouTubers…
Accusations of bad labor practices are upending the NBA 2K17 YouTube community this week. After freelance video editor Anthony (aka “Prince Prodigy”) alleged that popular 18-year-old gaming YouTuber LostNUnbound paid him a slim $15 per video edit, other LostNUnbound contributors have come forward alleging they worked…
Last night at the Game Awards, Uncharted voice actor Nolan North made some vague and puzzling remarks referencing the recent voice actors’ strike during his acceptance speech for “Best Performance.” Throughout the web, his comments were interpreted as criticism of the strike. But was that really what he was trying to…
Last week, members of the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike against key game companies. Per Motherboard, we’re getting a closer look at one of the guild’s complaints.
Following an announcement on Monday, voice actors within the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have begun their strike against certain video game employers as of 3:01 AM EST today. Kotaku has reached out to the involved parties.
The Tomorrow Children is an odd exploration and social game that’s out now on the Playstation 4. Taking the role of a citizen laboring in the dangerous Void, it’s cute but brutal. Luckily, I’m here to deal with all the toil and monsters.
Developer Amilia St. John, daughter of Alex St. John, wrote an excellent piece today that blasts her father’s views on crunch, labor, and women in the tech industry. “I beg my father, for the love of his daughters, to stop hindering our progress as women in the industry and start using his influence to promote…
How would you like to be fired? Do you want to go out in a take-this-job-and-shove-it blaze of glory? Would you like security to martyr you, marching you out by the elbows, as you clutched your box of things like Richard Gere carrying off Debra Winger? Would you just want the chance to look into the soulless black…
We've written many times before about the working conditions at Foxconn and other Chinese plants at which nearly all of the electronics used for gaming are manufactured. The short version is, its not great. Factory workers manage extraordinary hours for very little pay, living in cramped conditions. Following a spate…
About six months ago, Bethesda Softworks' Pete Hines figured Feb. 18 was the perfect day to conceive a child, as the baby would be due on Nov. 11, the ship date for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. One couple conceived well early of that, but their baby's birth will still forever be associated with the game.
It took seven years. It spanned two console generations. It was the biggest undertaking in Australian games development. And the seven years it took to bring L.A. Noire to store shelves was consistently an unhappy time for many who worked on the game, reports IGN.
