The STJV has called for a general strike in the video game industry in France on February 13, 2025. After a first article explaining why we are calling for a strike, here is an article to provide details and arguments for each of our demands.

Demand 1: protecting jobs and making decision-makers accountable

Preservation of jobs, the cancellation of layoffs and the accountability of decision-makers who must first make sacrifices themselves when their companies face difficulties.

Layoffs have no justification

We know that it is not possible to avoid all of the current layoffs, but we assert that all of them are illegitimate: either because they could have been avoided, or because they are simply not necessary.

All layoffs can be avoided with proper planning and management. Layoffs are often just a tool for lazy bosses who don’t really want to manage their business. Workers are not variables to be used for financial adjustment.

Also, the necessity for layoffs has yet to be proven by companies. Yet they remain opaque about their finances, their partnerships… It is precisely this lack of transparency that, to this day, makes it impossible to justify most layoffs.

In some companies, we are dealing with managers who have wrongly concluded that layoffs are necessary, merely because they don’t even know how to work out their own financial projections.

Many bosses could fight against publishers and the groups they belong to to prevent layoffs in their companies, but they would rather fire workers and destroy their lives in the process than risk a disagreement with their employer friends.

Why do layoffs never affect bosses?

Every time companies bring up layoffs, the possibiliy of laying off bosses and directors, to lower the wages, to cancel their bonuses or advantages is “strangely” always absent from the conversation.

We have already seen bosses earning half a million euros per year telling workers they should be happy to not be on the minimum wage, and that it is necessary to fire the poorest workers. If it really is so necessary to tighten our belts, then bosses should sacrifice themselves at last!

This is all the more true given that publishers and groups have money, and bosses also have assets (luxury cars, boats, townhouses, mansions, summer houses…). Why should vulnerable workers lose their jobs to allow these bosses and shareholders to maintain their obscene lifestyles? They should put that money into saving jobs. Let them take responsibility and not brush off problems at the expense of workers. Let them finally be accountable.

Fatalism only benefits bosses

It’s not right that workers should have to pay for the mistakes made by the people who took stupid decisions without even asking for their opinion. Without being overly optimistic, being fatalistic about layoffs only benefits companies, which can then continue to increase their profits at our expense without encountering any opposition. The less we defend ourselves against layoffs, the more companies will fire workers without justification.

Demand 2: transparency about company finances and profit sharing

Companies’ full transparency about their financial situation and economic health, so that workers can plan their future, and profit sharing with workers.

We need to know what happened to our surplus value

The intentional vagueness surrounding companies’ finances and economic health and perpetuated by employers is preventing workers from planning for the future. Without knowing the state of a project’s finances, how can we guarantee our economic security and protect ourselves and our families?

Workers must have the right to check that the economic management of their company is sound, that there is no embezzlement, and that it will actually be possible to finish the ongoing productions and keep their jobs afterwards.

Profit-sharing is basic

Today, companies’ financial results only have a negative impact on workers. When a company loses money, workers, far from getting a raise, can be laid off; on the opposite, when a company sees its profits rise, wages remain unchanged. Where losses are collectivised, profits are privatised.

Yet it is thanks to the industry’s workers and their expertise that games are being released today. It is therefore legitimate to demand that good results be shared between all those involved in production, and not just those who have the means to line their pockets on the backs of others.

Demand 3: work reorganisation and the reduction of work hours

Consideration for work-related health and personal life, through work reorganisation and the reduction of work hours.

The video game industry is notorious for its deplorable working conditions

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of distressing accounts about various companies and schools teaching videogame trades, thanks in particular to press investigations on the subject. We all know the grim reality of the industry, confirmed by statistics: the video game industry is attractive and inspires many people to enter the field, yet no one stays in it for very long because of the deplorable working conditions and widespread discrimination.

We want to be proud of our games – give us the means to do so!

We don’t work in the video game industry because of the working conditions it offers. If ‘passion jobs’ are a reality and workers are enthusiastic, we can’t live on love and fresh water. To be dedicated, we must be able to maintain good health, have a social life and have the option of starting a family… Without having to sacrifice everything on the altar of work.

Let’s put an end to widespread disorganisation

Chaotic productions waste a lot of time, lead to overwork and strain work relationships… All these factors have a strong negative impact on morale and health. Who does what, and why? Efficient production means dividing up tasks clearly and transparently. This will not only benefit employees, but will also result in better games.

Achieving a better work-life balance

By reducing working hours, let’s make room for life outside the workplace. Let’s free up time for ourselves, for our loved ones and, why not, for our personal game projects.

Demand 4: direct participation of workers in decision-making

Direct participation of workers in decision-making at their companies in order to avoid management errors and control the proper use of private and public funding.

Our production, our choices

Workers are at the heart of the machine, as close as possible to the reality of what their game is. They are not only competent but also in a position to make decisions about what they are producing.

Workers always identify problems in advance, and that’s normal since they’re the ones who make the games. They are the first to come up with solutions to problems. They are not listened to only because bosses prefer to maintain their power over workers rather than respect them. It’s more important for them to protect their privileges first and foremost, even when it puts their company and everyone who works there at risk.

But in reality, allowing programmers to make decisions about programming, level designers to make decisions about level design, animators to make decisions about animation, etc…. This isn’t the idea of a bloodthirsty revolutionary, it’s a logical conclusion that becomes obvious when we understand that we’re the only ones who are capable of doing what we do.

We are the industry

Many of us in the video game industry have strong creative desires and the hope of really being able to leave a mark on the games we make. But these days, the prevailing thinking is that the only possible way to gain creative freedom is to set up a company and exploit other workers, to express our vision without giving others the freedom to express themselves on our productions. This would be going down the wrong road and allowing ourselves to be indoctrinated by a bourgeois class imposing its capitalist ideology.

Creativity must be accessible to everyone, not just to a minority with sufficient connections and financial means to impose their creative vision as the only possible one. If we want diverse games that tell stories from different backgrounds and experiences, we need to give creative people from all walks of life the chance to create their own games.