Meeting of the Parliament 03 February 2026 [Draft]
I thank my colleague Michael Marra for holding this timely debate. The Lothian region is reaping the benefits of having a significant games sector employer, Rockstar North, located in Edinburgh. I am confident that the region will only continue to benefit from the future expansion of the sector. Therefore, I thank the Scottish Games Network for offering such a detailed plan in its report.
I will focus on the report’s ambition to create a robust talent pipeline. Although I welcome the report’s recommendations on how to do that, more must be said about the need to strengthen the rights of games workers. Current protections are insufficient and the situation is forcing many workers to leave the sector, while new talent may avoid it altogether. Last December, I visited workers who had been dismissed by Rockstar North in Edinburgh without disciplinary hearings and with the absolute minimum notice. The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain—IWGB—is helping those workers to challenge their dismissal.
The dispute is symptomatic of the broader problem with employees’ rights in the sector. The industry has been blighted by lay-offs since 2022, driven to some extent by reckless investment during the Covid-era boom. In its “State of the Game Industry” report in 2025, the game developers conference stated:
“Layoffs have become part of the industry, with announcements now a weekly, if not daily, occurrence.”
Unsurprisingly, a wave of unionisation has begun to pass through the sector.
The games workers branch of the IWGB grew by almost 50 per cent between 2022 and 2023, and it has continued to grow since then. However, the issue is not just lay-offs. The infamous crunch period regularly involves employees being forced to work an unbearable amount of overtime in the lead-up to the release of a game, and there are concerns that the pay and the arrangements for residuals do not provide adequate rewards for developers and other staff.
Developers could choose to work elsewhere, including in defence, virtual reality or the wider tech industry. To keep them in the games sector, we must strengthen their rights as employees. For example, in relation to the action plan’s recommendation on the creation of a “Games Scotland” body, trade unions must be represented on any such body. If we share the Scottish Games Network’s desire for a robust talent pipeline, we must take steps to ensure that games workers are given the rights and privileges that they deserve.