“I think this industry is done”: Disco Elysium spin-off studio Summer Eternal talks about the chances of things getting better for game developers

It’s been a pretty dismal year for the games industry, with more layoffs and cuts than anyone can remotely justify, while corporate bigwigs are still taking home huge compensation packages or riding into golden parachutes. As much as they can, the developers are trying to fight this tide of misery, but it is a difficult task, since the developers are not entirely Elysée Nightclub successor study eternal summer I know it very well.

The group made it clear when they announced the formation of the collective that they believe it will not be an ideal solution to all the problems the games industry is causing developers right now, but rather something that will have to try and exist as best as possible. can do so within the limits of the established system. With this in mind, I recently asked some of the Summer Eternal developers how they feel about the possibilities that the games industry can truly change so that it can offer a brighter future for developers than our current bleak status quo, as part of an interview that you can read the main part here.

“The strikes and pickets we are seeing these days at Ubisoft facilities are the first step towards greater power for workers in the industry,” Aleksandar Gavrilovič, who played a major role in creating the structure of Summer Eternal, told me. , “I myself subscribe to the accelerationist vision that the only way to achieve better conditions is to enter crises that highlight the contradictions of society and force us to remake the world.

“The last few decades have been quiet for game developers, and my own unionization efforts have had only limited success (a few collective bargaining agreements signed locally), as the time was not right. Now, after tens of thousands of layoffs , it seems the right time has come for game developers to defend their rights against systemic greed.

“I’m still anxiously awaiting a second crisis, one that would highlight the biggest structural problem in game development: the fact that a third of all PC revenue from all developers (from indies to AAA) is diverted to fiefdoms digital, of which Valve is the most egregious example. I can imagine a near future with more worker power, but I lack the imagination to imagine replacing Valve with a community-owned alternative. That “winter castle” will not fall as badly. easily, but we should at least start by openly discussing alternatives.”

Meanwhile, former ZA/UM writer Dora Klindžić said: “It’s true, Summer Eternal will not fix the games industry, although as a byproduct of our operation we could generate a panacea for agriculture, astronomy, inaccurate bus schedules , those misleading messages that target your mother, local elections and syphilis. I think this industry is over. But, fortunately for everyone, video games are not.

To reflect further on the state of the video game industry in 2024, when it seems like the good (great video games), the bad (layoffs and closures), and the ugly (also layoffs and closures) are flowing downstream of our hobby with a faster volume and pace than ever before, check out this feature.