At the annual Game Development Conference (GDC), discussions centered around the burgeoning labor movement in video game production. Journalist Jason Schreier and labor organizer Tom Smith highlighted that since 2018, there has been a significant increase in union organizing among game workers, particularly following the establishment of Game Workers Unite. Despite industry contractions and record layoffs totaling over 30,000 workers since 2022, efforts towards unionization have continued, with notable victories such as the union vote by Raven Software's QA team amidst challenges from their parent company, Activision Blizzard.
In the years since, a contraction in the gaming market has been driven by the interrelated forces of the pandemic, the rise and subsequent calcification of mobile gaming, and risky bets on technology like NFTs and cryptocurrency.
Their discussion was focused on the growth of the labor movement in video games that has taken place since 2018, when a GDC panel discussion titled 'Unions Now: The Pros and Cons of Organizing' catalyzed the founding of pro-union group Game Workers Unite.
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