Video Game Companies Can No Longer Do Layoffs Quietly

In Interstellar, Michael Caine says to astronauts Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as they embark on their mission to save the planet, “do not go gentle into that good night”. It’s a reminder that while humanity’s chances of survival maybe remote, its destruction is assured if they do nothing. A group of video game developers in the US and abroad have taken the lines from Dylan Thomas’ poem to heart. They have raged, raged against the dying of their employment with public demonstrations that have garnered global attention to a video game labor crisis that’s slowly starting to gain mainstream recognition.

Earlier this week, ZeniMax and Bethesda employees held rallies to protest Xbox’s latest round of layoffs that cost 1,600 people their jobs with 1,600 more layoffs to come in the future. Across multiple studios in Texas, Montreal, and California, employees gathered with signs and chants criticizing the company for continuing to fail its employees.

Maryland is losing more than 350 jobs as software giant Microsoft makes deep slashes to gaming divisions. Bethesda Game Studios workers are rallying at ZeniMax offices across North America in Rockville, Austin, Dallas, and Montreal. They're calling it the "Save Our Devs" rally. pic.twitter.com/tkrwcltEHn

— The Banner Montgomery (@bannermoco) July 16, 2026

In Spain, the developers at Ubisoft’s Barcelona office have held multiple demonstrations protesting layoffs that were announced shortly after the launch of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. The Barcelona studio was a major contributor to the development of the game that’s become the highest-rated game in Assassin’s Creed franchise history. And yet that success was apparently not enough to save roughly 50 jobs at the studio as Ubisoft continues its massive reorganization project responsible for deep cuts in its labor force and the shuttering of several studios. But employees at the Barcelona studio weren’t having it, arranging several days of demonstrations that started on Tuesday, July 14th until Thursday, July 16th.

“The team behind Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced died corporately just before launch,” read a flyer distributed at the protest (via Spanish news outlet elDiaro.es.) “Laid off due to management greed at the height of its success.”

🔴 Los trabajadores de la empresa de videojuegos Ubisoft Barcelona, en huelga para protestar contra despidos masivos

▶️ A pesar del éxito del último juego de la compañía, 51 trabajadores podrían quedarse en la calle

✍️ Lee el artículo: https://t.co/Nzs1xDtv3M pic.twitter.com/tKpUnlhZsh

— elDiario.es Cultura (@eldiarioCultura) July 16, 2026

Build A Rocket Boy has already been gutted by layoffs after the terrible launch of its game MindsEye. Shortly after the game’s release last year, the company underwent two rounds of layoffs amidst accusations the company implemented surveillance tools to spy on employees. After MindsEye DLC, released in April, failed to win back players or convince them MindsEye‘s initial launch was sabotaged, Build A Rocket Boy solicited fans to attend an all-expenses-paid trip to its studio in Edinburgh to playtest the game. Current and former BARB employees staged a protest the day of the playtest, with labor organizer Spring McParlin-Jones calling it, “a kick in the teeth,” to laid off devs.

Labor conditions in the video game industry have sucked since 2021. Yet its decline in the last year, exacerbated by foundation-breaking layoffs at Epic, Xbox, and PlayStation have become too big to simply carry on business as usual. This is not usual and in addition to the behind-the-scenes work of union organizing, workers have taken the fight public. Game studios cannot layoff their way into solvency or a turn-around. It needs people to do that, as well as smarter decision-makers planning for longevity rather than short-term profitability. Public demonstrations – the rage against the dying of the light – is a good way to make executives take notice.