Project Update: Rebrand (Also an Evolving Strike at ZeniMax)
A News Recap & Updates on where this whole thing is going
Hello all, welcome back. This week’s newsletter is going to be a little different. We are going to kick off with a PSA, then take a look at the most important things happening in labor & gaming right now.
Due to some turbulence in my personal life, this newsletter is long overdue. Despite that, I somehow feel more motivated than ever to produce union related reporting and analysis (probably the Prozac speaking), and I think coverage and explanation of what is happening in the labor organizing world will be more important than ever going forward.
Taking a beat to cover some housekeeping;
For starters, we are renaming this newsletter unionquest. Same newsletter you love, with more content and social channels to boot.
Speaking of which, we’re launching Twitter and Bluesky accounts in order to get union-related messaging out faster & wider.
We have a large pipeline of articles incoming, which I am very excited about. Here is said pipeline for those who are interested;
An Interview with Don McGowan, former CLO at Bungie & Pokémon Company
An Interview with a key union organizer from Avalanche Games in Sweden
An explainer on how the Trump administration is going to try and gut the right to organize in 2025
A current database of all the games you can buy that were made by union labor
If you want to help support this kind of work, you can go over to the Patreon page and join as a patron. There are currently no unique benefits to becoming a patron, though that is something I plan on adding in 2025. It will most likely be full interview transcripts and discussions on games that have labor as major themes.
And yes, if any of you were wondering, I am looking into building a website so that we can move off of Substack.
Thank you for sitting through the PSA, now we will get back to our regular programming.
You’re reading the rebranding PSA newsletter
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The News Recap Oct and Early Nov 2024
While I work on the more labor-intensive articles in the pipeline, I’ve gathered the headlines I think to be the most important spanning the last couple of months so that you all can keep up to date on what is happening.
The key takeaways are as follows;
ZeniMax Union Goes on Strike Over Outsourcing and Remote Work
Nov. 13th, 2024 - America's Biggest Video Games Union Goes on Strike; Inverse
French Workers Keep Doing French People things
Oct. 16th, 2024 - Don't Nod admits "challenging times" as "reorganisation project" puts up to 69 jobs at risk; GamesIndustry.biz
Oct. 16th, 2024 - 700+ Ubisoft France staff walk out on a three-day strike in dispute over home working and pay; GamesIndustry.biz
Oct. 28th, 2024 - Don’t Nod employees called for walkout over layoff plans; Sports Illustrated
Nov. 6th, 2024 - Don't Nod workers to strike on November 8; Gamesindustry.biz
The SAG-AFTRA Strike Continues
Oct. 26th, 2024 - Video Game Actors Strike Continues as SAG-AFTRA Extends Contract Negotiations; Variety
Oct. 29th, 2024 - SAG-AFTRA Strikes Deal With Ethovox on AI Voice Protections; IGN
Oct. 30th, 2024 - UK-based stars support US video game strikes as row continues; BBC
Layoffs and other Nastiness
Oct. 23rd, 2024 - Ubisoft has disbanded the team behind Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown; Engadget
Oct. 29th, 2024 - Sony shuts down Concord developer Firewalk, permanently cancels game; Polygon
Oct. 30th, 2024 - Fandom Lays Off 11 Percent Of Staff, GameSpot Affected; Aftermath
Oct. 30th, 2024 - Developer ProbablyMonsters lays off Battle Barge staff after project cancellation; Game Developer
Nov. 7th, 2024 - G/O Media Cuts Kotaku To The Bone As More Writers Are Laid Off; Aftermath
Miscellaneous
Oct. 30th, 2024 - Former Disco Elysium Devs Embrace Worker/Player-Owned Structure To Bring ‘True Democracy’ To Game Development; Aftermath
Oct. 31st, 2024 - Statement from CWA Following Studio Closures and Layoffs at Sony Interactive Entertainment; CWA
Nov 1st, 2024 - IWGB Game Workers launches first manifesto, Gamesindustry.biz
Nov 6th, 2024 - NYT tech workers are making their own games while on strike; The Verge
Nov. 7th, 2024 - New York Times Tech Guild Goes Out on ULP Strike; CWA
That’s the end of this week’s newsletter, thanks for sticking around.



Been looking forward to this Don McGowan interview for a while now. This is my jam.