Hot Labor Summer: Video Games Edition

This week, Nathan, Riley, and Chris tackle a very eventful week, beginning with news that broke mere minutes before we started recording: video game voice actors and mocap performers are going on strike. Major companies – including EA, Epic, and Activision – aren’t guaranteeing them necessary AI-related protections, so they’re taking to the picket line. We reflect on how things reached this boiling point and consider what might happen next. After that, we discuss Humble Games, which laid off its entire staff – replacing them with a third-party company – and had the gall to call it a “restructuring.” Then we talk about two big wins that might protect other game workers against similar ravages: Hundreds of game developers at both Blizzard and Bethesda unionized, giving them leverage previously unheard of among rank-and-file employees at massive, multinational video game companies. Next we discuss Ubisoft’s decision to try to appease bad-faith arguments against the next Assassin’s Creed, and then finally, Chris tells us about Kunitsu-Gami, a game that just sounds neat. Also, we decide which animal – aside from apes – would be the best gamer. Credits - Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Riley MacL…