The year 2026 for the gaming industry begins with not one, but two major scandals related to unions – Rockstar and Ubisoft are being harshly criticized by the professional community. And the coming year in general can play a very important role for associations in the gaming industry. Gamesindustry.biz portal speakWhy.
Notably, neither of the two major scandals that occurred in late 2025 and early 2026 focused on the United States, perhaps the most union-hostile major region in the industry. Legal and political disputes over layoffs at Rockstar Games continue in the UK; in October, the studio fired 31 employees for allegedly revealing confidential information. The company continues to deny the cuts are related to unionization.
And in Canada, Ubisoft closed its Ubisoft Halifax division, putting 71 employees out of work. The publisher, once again, denied that this had anything to do with the formation of the first union in Ubisoft's North American branch – the studio closure is said to come as part of an ongoing restructuring process.
In both cases, the unions affiliated with the fired developers (IWGB in the UK, CWA in Canada) demanded an investigation into the motives for the dismissals. The IWGB specifically directly accused Rockstar of union sabotage. And in both cases, it will be difficult to prove that the publisher broke any laws, but this does not mean that the investigations and trials are pointless. Many companies have a habit of forgetting incriminating emails and other paperwork, not to mention the fact that such organizations with unclear views on employee rights have many potential whistleblowers.
But if you look at the situation as a whole, it may not matter why Ubisoft closed its Canadian operations in Halifax or what role unionization played in the decision. One way or another, this sets a clear precedent: professional associations not only do not protect those who lose their jobs, but also theoretically accelerate the process of firing them. In Rockstar's case, union protection for employees also took the form of lengthy post-incident litigation. Even if the affected developers win in court, few want to be in such a situation.
Both incidents have yet to be fully resolved, but regardless of the outcome of the proceedings, they are likely to hamper unionization initiatives in other parts of the world. A side effect, if you look at the situation skeptically, is that many companies are willing to pay a lot of money for lawyers.
The issue here is not the unions themselves or their legal status. The problem is that they are often created at the last moment and with very little effort.
After decades of anti-union propaganda and active union busting at every level, many employees didn't even think about joining a union until layoffs and reorganizations began to appear. But at that point, according to regulations, the union could no longer change anything – the most it could offer was fair pay for those who were fired. No union can prevent a restructuring at a struggling studio that isn't meeting financial expectations.
Furthermore, even when the union formation flywheel is in motion, the scope of such initiatives is often very narrow; they typically only affect a small percentage of a company's employees. Usually such organizations include a specific class of developers, often those in the least trusted position because they have the least influence in negotiations. Efforts to unionize under such conditions are laudable, but their results often fail: without the support of higher-ranking employees, no one pays much attention to the demands of such unions.
It is a vicious cycle that must be broken so that developers at every level of the industry can experience the positive effects of unions. Fortunately, in recent years, more and more people have begun to understand the importance of labor organizing in the gaming industry.
The abhorrent way harassment and abuse of power are handled in many companies has forced most to accept that the job of HR in such situations is to protect the company from its employees, not the other way around. Undiscussed orders on returning to the office after the pandemic, which contradict productivity statistics, have further influenced workers' propensity to form unions. And the massive wave of layoffs hitting the gaming industry has highlighted that it's much easier for studio staff in countries with strict legal regulations that favor workers to survive the crisis.
The last point is especially important because it highlights the key value of organized labor – studio employees becoming shareholders in their companies, thereby providing a counterweight to the decisions of top management. A union will not be able to prevent layoffs and restructuring if the industry environment is bad, but its existence can prevent the inflation of speculative bubbles and ensure that these bubbles burst with minimal consequences.
