Game industry support for unionisation is growing, GDC survey shows

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Game industry support for unionisation is growing, GDC survey showsNearly 4,000 developers surveyed

Nearly 4,000 developers surveyed

AsGDC’s yearly survey of developers says in their report “unionisation and labor practices remain hot topics in the game industry.” The last several years have seen many reports of gamedevelopers being overworked—that thing we call crunch—to finish the biggest games each year. If not stories of crunch, it’s reports ofmajor layoffsinstead. No surprise then thattalk of unionisingcontinues to grow.

Each year, GDC ask developers about their experiences and trends in the industry. This year they reportedly surveyed “nearly 4,000” developers, says the report. The survey asks developers about a number of other topics including hours worked per week, platforms they are currently developing for, and the business model that will be used for their current projects.

On the subject of crunch, the survey asks how many hours per week on average developers worked on games in the past year. The most popular answer was “36-40” hours from 23% of respondents. More concerning, a total of 44% answered anywhere from 41 to “more than 60,” as an average. The maximum hours developers report working in any given week in the last year are much higher, with answers as high as 90 hours, though answers ranging from 41-60 hours as a maximum were most common.

When it comes to business models, loot boxes remain unpopular, GDC report. Down a percent from last year, only 8% of those surveyed are working on games with “paid item crates,” they say. “This reinforces our understanding of this controversial monetization system as an enduring but still relatively uncommon business model in games,” the report explains.

PC is still the most popular platform, according to the survey’s results. More than 50% of respondents say that PC is at least one of the platforms their past, present, and future projects are being developed for. Similarly, 50% of developers say that PC is the platform they are “most interested” in.

This year’sGDC 2020is coming up on March 16th.