For the first time, motion capture workers in the gaming industry they are unionizing.
Through IATSE21 full-time employees at 2K's Pelatuma, California studio (which runs mocap for its sports franchises, XCOM and BioShock) have requested voluntary recognition from Take-Two management. Staff also called for union elections to be held at a later date.
Unionisation has grown in the gaming industry in recent years. But most of these efforts have focused on Quality control personneland not specifically mocap, despite performance capture being a core part of gaming for over a decade.
The demands 2K's mocap team is looking for include job security and pay equity that matches industry standards, along with minimum wages for new hires. They told Variety that their salaries are still below average, even though money has been spent on improving their facility.
“Management has repeatedly failed to listen to our voices when problems arise,” said scene creator Cameron Boyce. “[It’s] they made us feel unheard and, ultimately, undervalued and, in the eyes of management, expendable.”
Propman Connor Bredbeck added that “inequalities are endemic to the games industry and detract from the work we are all so passionate about. Our love for the work we do has not only allowed us to organize ourselves, but is also the which is why we are. the organization in the first place.”
“These dedicated individuals are essential to the success of the world-class video games that their work helps create,” he said IATSE International Vice President Michael F. Miller, who said motion capture “overlaps significantly” with work within IATSE's orbit.
“[We] we stand firmly with 2K MoCap workers and video game workers in general in their pursuit of the same rights and protections that union members have in the entertainment industry,” he continued. “We look forward to the election and, ultimately, negotiations in good faith with Take-Two Interactive to honor the voices of its workers and engage in good faith negotiations.”