Survey reveals over half of game devs are in favor of unionizing

The results from the International Game Developers Association’s latest Developers Satisfaction Survey show that 56 percent of game developers are in favor of forming a developer union.

The statistic comes from 2,200 polled developers and represents a 21 percent increase in pro-union devs from the firm’s 2009’s Quality of Life Survey. Similarly, the percentage of female developers has risen dramatically in the past five years—from 11.5 to 22 percent.

IGDA executive director Kate Edwards discussed the industry’s struggle with job security as well, describing the survey’s findings as unsurprising but significant.

“When we asked people how many jobs they’d had in the past five years and the average number was four,” Edwards said, “that was pretty eye-opening for us. But I do think it basically confirms what a lot of us have sort of known and have been hearing anecdotally for a while now.” Despite this, nearly two-thirds (61 percent) of respondents said they plan to continue to work in games, while those considering leaving the industry most commonly cited the pursuit of improved quality of life as their motive.

Developer salaries show radical change as well, with roughly half of devs falling below the mark of $50,000 annually—a sharp drop from the mean salary of $84,000 found by Gamasutra’s 2013 Game Developer Salary Survey. Edwards attributes the gap to the large percentage of independent developers within their survey demographic.

 [GamesIndustry International]