◼ TECHNOLOGY Bloomberg Businessweek August 31, 202018
● Making games is sexy—unless you’re one of the permatemps doing much of the workSecond-Class E-Citizens
with more than a dozen contractors, none of whom
wanted to be identified for fear of retribution by
employers, suggest they’re often essential members
of game development teams. These skilled artists,
designers, and producers maintain the same long
hours as staffers. Sometimes their employment has
a specific end date, but their contracts are frequently
extended, allowing them to keep their jobs but offer-
ing no path to full-time employment. “There are
many roles applicable only during a certain point
of a project, so contracts are well-suited for these
positions,” says Renee Gittins, executive director
of the nonprofit International Game Developers
Association. “But contracting should not be used as
a method to avoid employment expenses.”
Legally,thesepermatempsoccupya murky
space.In2000,MicrosoftCorp.settleda class-
action lawsuit brought by contractors for failingAs Christmas 2018 approached, workers at Activision
Blizzard Inc. were busy doing what they always do—
writing code, modeling characters, and designing
landscapes for the next Call of Duty games. At the
company’s campus in Santa Monica, Calif., everyone
got hand-delivered invitations to the annual holi-
day bash, where staff could drink, unwind, and cel-
ebrate the year. Some recipients, though, were soon
told they’d received the invitations by mistake and
wouldn’t be welcome at the party, according to three
people familiar with the incident. The reason: They
were temporary contractors officially employed by
a staffing agency, Volt Workforce Solutions.
That treatment isn’t unusual in the gaming
industry. While executives rake in millions of dollars
and some full-time employees can expect Porsche-
size bonuses when a hot new title drops, many peo-
ple working alongside them get nothing but a salary
that barely keeps them above the poverty line.
Their employee badges typically come in a dif-
ferent color. They rarely get paid vacations. Their
names sometimes aren’t included in the credits.
And when full-time co-workers get pricey swag such
as statuettes of game characters, they’re often left
out. At one studio, a contractor says they were given
cheaper, less comfortable chairs. “Temps will be told
that there will be opportunities to prove themselves
and possibly transition to full time,” says Emma
Kinema, a Communications Workers of America
organizer seeking to unionize video game makers.
“In reality, the vast majority of people in ‘temp’ roles
in the game industry get trapped there forever with
terrible conditions, no benefits, low pay, and no lad-
der for career progression.”
The video game industry employs more than
220,000 people worldwide, according to the
Entertainment Software Association. These are
backed up by thousands of freelancers who write
scripts or draw concept art for studios when
needed. Somewhere in the middle are contractors
employed by agencies such as Volt, Keywords, and
Yoh, who work full-time hours but are frequently
treated as lesser employees.
The industry’s prestige—what kid doesn’t grow
up wanting to make games for a living?—makes it
particularly ripe for labor exploitation. Interviews● Number of people
employed by the video
game industry220k