The past year in video game news has contained plenty of positive, exciting stories, but it has also found plenty of less than pleasant experiences for those involved with the creation of the games published under the biggest companies in the industry. The recurring trend hit first and large with the closure of Telltale Games, leaving hundreds of employees without jobs and even failed to pay severance in most cases. As the months followed, reports came in regarding big releases like Red Dead Redemption 2, Anthem and Mortal Kombat 11 arriving on time at the cost of severe crunch periods that essentially forced employees to work extremely long hours and work weeks. Many who have criticized these occurrences believe that a video game developer union would prevent such situations from occurring. Well, that movement has gained a big supporter in Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who has come out in favor of such unionization. 

The video game industry made $43 billion in revenue last year. The workers responsible for that profit deserve to collectively bargain as part of a union. I’m glad to see unions like @IATSE and the broader @GameWorkers movement organizing such workers. https://t.co/Ia5gMG2v0w

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 18, 2019

Senator Bernie Sanders recently shared a tweet expressing his approval for video game developer unions on his official Twitter account. In it, Bernie refers to the $43 billion in revenue the gaming industry pulled in last year, and uses that as a basis for developers to have their quality of life on the job protected. He also mentions specific unions IATSE and GameWorkers as doing good work to make such unionization possible. 

Bernie also shares a recent Time Magazine article in the tweet which provides extensive coverage of the past year’s events that gave rise to calls for unionization. There’s no telling to what extent Sanders would make video game unionization a platform of his 2020 Presidential election campaign, but it certainly would be a good one to get young people more interested in his policies. Now, if only someone could convince him to wear a Professor Oak cosplay at his next rally, then we’d really be in business.

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