The state of the video game industry can be measured in two key ways, and we're being honest, both of those ways paint a bleak picture of how things look right now. First, there are the video games themselves. If the industry is doing strongly, then the games will be the best they can be with no issues. However, we know that's not really the case, as recent years have had a rather hit-or-miss success rate with us getting a "complete" title at launch. Then, there is worker treatment at game companies, which Romero Games says it's doing incredibly well at.
If you don't know what we mean by "worker treatment," we're referring to how numerous game companies have been called out over the years for horrible treatment of the actual team members who help make the games we all play. The stories we've heard have been sad and horrifying at times, so when the head of Romero Games, legendary FPS creator John Romero, went to Twitter to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his team and reveal some new worker privileges they instituted, you likely wish that others would take up that kind of initiative.
In the post, he said:
"In these 10 years, we've established a studio in Galway, expanded and moved into new offices 3x with a 4th expansion expected in 2025. We're just past 75 people now across all disciplines, and we've retained our inclusive, welcoming culture. The RG team is made of people from all over the world, with the core of our team in Ireland and other countries in the EU and UK. Each year, the leadership team adds more benefits, and 2024 was no exception (we added menopause leave, clothing allowance, and matched donations)."
Again, when you hear something like that, you want others to do that kind of thing and treat each member of the team like they are family. Yet, we continually see that this isn't the case. Sony and Microsoft have been letting people go for various reasons, or even shutting down whole studios.
Then, you have people like Ubisoft, who punish teams when "games don't meet sales expectations," even though it's the higher-up's fault for those titles not meeting the lofty expectations they have.
That doesn't mention companies like Blizzard, which was literally sued because of the "frat boy culture" that they cultivated, which led to discrimination and terrible treatment of the female staff there.
We hope Romero isn't posting a "puffery" post because we definitely need shining beacons of worker treatment in our world today.