In the first month of our campaign OVER 2,000 people have signed our boycott Xbox pledge! So far that's: 🎮 1,913 gamers 🔨 296 game workers & developers ✏️ 179 game writers 👾 146 streamers Thank you for your support with our launch, we can’t wait to build the campaign bigger and better next year!

$41,000 donated in just two days! We worried that the same energy that got us to $67,000 back in 2023 might not be here this time around, but thank you so much to everybody who's proven us so very wrong here.

This hits so close to home. The professional and personal isolation both @ramiismail.com, @tamoorh.com and many more describes is a brutal, unspoken reality. For many of us, the last two years haven't just been "difficult" but a systematic stripping away of support and community.

There’s a moment in this where @ramiismail.com talks about people distancing themselves or being told to do so because of his advocacy. Most never talk about but, man, it’s so real. The last couple years have been professionally and personally isolating in brutal ways. It’s been really eye-opening.

$30K! We'll be making our donation as soon as our next set of Patreon funding comes through at the start of Jan.

Woah! I think we might hit the target today. Thank you so much if you've donated.

Thanks to everyone who's chipped in so far. This is so heartening to see! As a reminder, if we cross $25,000, PMG is going to donate $5000 at the start of January.

This is tremendous work. Lays the entire thing out as clearly and thoroughly as I've seen. Very patient, empathetic, and addresses questions people might have about the effectiveness of a boycott like this.

The $10,000 donation will be split over a few days due to transfer limits with my card, but rest assured it will all be donated. I will reply to this thread will full receipts when the donation is complete.

Oh my word, this is an enormous gesture from the creator of Luck be a Landlord:

Can somebody help us get over $1,000? www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybj1...

I was allowed to film there, despite what the security guard was shouting at me. In the end, they just watched as I filmed my bits to camera and asked me some questions about why I was there. I told them I was a YouTuber interested in data centres, which is technically true!

Why We're Boycotting Xbox: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybj1...

This is very, very kind! Anni and I have been juggling PMG with raising a very lively almost-two-year-old and it's taken us a while to properly find our feet again, to be honest. Knowing our work has mattered to some folks this year is really appreciated.

I've included this as a reply to yesterday's post about the Rockstar comment, but here's IWGB's full response this morning.

Rockstar now claims it was, in fact, the leaking of “specific game features from upcoming and unannounced titles” that led to the firings. We’re going to have to see the company prove this in an employment tribunal & more than that, it’ll need to prove it for all 31 fired employees in the UK too.

ROCKSTAR UPDATE: Keir Starmer was just asked about the Rockstar firings in Parliament today where he described the situation as "deeply concerning" and promised it would be looked into by government ministers. Not that a Starmer promise is worth much, mind.

NEW: I spoke with the reporters behind Post Games, Aftermath, Game File, People Make Games, Rogue, and Rascal News to learn about the trials and triumphs of going independent in a shifting game media landscape dominated by conglomeration and layoffs.

Currently working on a story about the Xbox boycott and hoping to have it up on the channel before the end of the year. But in the meantime, I'm very happy to have my name (and PMG's) attached to today's pledge from @nogamesforgenocide.com.

I interviewed the creator of Blue Prince days before the game's release about his modest expectations for the indie puzzler. And then I interviewed him again, last week, ahead of The Game Awards, about how a hit game does and doesn't change your life.

🚨NEW DOC ALERT🕹️ The Making of Disco Elysium - Part One: Foundations www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH6m... After over 18 months of research, interviews & editing our Disco Elysium series is here. In this first episode we focus on the cultural and personal foundations of the world of Elysium.

This was such a special video to make, and I really appreciate the Consume Me team being so generous with their time and ARTIFACTS! www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfaM...

You guys 🥹

ahhh @novaramedia.com & People Make Games crossover event about Rockstar's union busting. glad to see this news spread beyond the games industry. hopefully a warning to any future union busting efforts + a support to fired workers in their upcoming legal battle www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxuP...

Last night's interview with Novara on the Rockstar firings is now up as its own standalone video, if you'd like to watch. Delighted to see the story picked up by the wider media in this way, as surreal as it felt to appear on a show I've been watching for years now. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxuP...

Going to be on Novara Live later this evening (I think about 6:45PM?) discussing the Rockstar firings and the union's efforts to get those employees reinstated www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hjc...

Finished my homework last night (watching a 1h40m video tutorial), so I'm really looking forward to tonight's gaming (pressing unpause on Europa Universalis V for the first time, despite having multiple hours of playtime logged).

I shared this yesterday. But I want to repost @chrisbratt.bsky.social's investigation into the Rockstar union-busting allegations. What people in the business call "proper reporting" and the kind of stuff a healthy media ecosystem must support. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TvW...

EXCLUSIVE: So far it's been unclear what proof Rockstar Games has to justify its firing of 34 union members, who it claims were leaking "confidential information in a public forum". PMG has now seen some of the messages which contributed to this decision being made. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TvW...

Another Member of Scottish Parliament (@ross-greer.bsky.social was at a demo two weeks ago as well) joins the fired workers outside Rockstar North in Edinburgh. "I stand with the workers. I hope that they will be reinstated before Christmas to this job that they love..."

We were also joined by trade unionists from the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Germany!

Protests continued today outside Take Two's offices in London, but also in Paris, where Le Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo (@stjv.fr) came out to show their international solidarity with the fired Rockstar workers.

The Rockstar union case made its way into UK Parliament earlier today

The IWGB has just announced that 220 letters, signed by Rockstar staff, have now been delivered to leadership at the company, demanding the immediate reinstatement of their fired colleagues.

NEW: the IWGB has filed formal legal claims against Rockstar after it says the company refused to meet to discuss bringing back fired developers. "Rockstar has declined to meet with the IWGB, leading the union and barristers to issue formal legal claims on behalf of the Claimants."

If you care about games, I hope you also care about the people who work hard and sacrifice so much to make them... Only to be tossed aside. People Make Games is one approachable way to learn more - this video is about GTA, but check their backlog for more. youtu.be/c9nOwjeznjI?...

🌱

You can hear how angry and hurt these devs are. It's in their shaky voices and the way they talk about their work. It's an awful situation, for those who were forced out and those who remain

Shoutout to whichever Rockstar union member attached one of their seedlings to my bag when I wasn’t looking at the demonstration. I’ve been delighted to have it on there ever since.

I went to meet the 'Rockstar 31', the developers who were suddenly fired from their work on GTA 6 for what the studio has described as gross misconduct. That's not what the workers call it though. They have another couple of words they prefer to use: union busting. www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9nO...

jumpscare in image 3

This seems outrageously cruel. And just a handful of months before these folks would have been set to enjoy the release of one of the biggest games of their careers too. The imbalance of power in the games industry remains utterly fucked.

Great primer here on all the *extremely weird shit* we’ve seen these last couple of days linking Trump, ICE and the Master Chief. Vital to have people like @alyssamerc.bsky.social on this beat, as miserably bleak as it is.

Thanks to PMG's patrons for providing us with the funding this month to pay for a VFX artist to remove a bogey from my nose in some *extremely important footage* that we really cannot shoot again 🙃

We’ve met with Greta Thunberg and others in the flotilla. They describe hours-long scenes of torture and sexual harassment in Israeli captivity. Experts conclude that they have been subjected to serious crimes – Sweden’s foreign minister believes they have themselves to blame. tinyurl.se/crR

Love love love seeing Jim doing this kind of stuff! Give it a watch.

What have they done to you, my old friend?

SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...

This week I’m going to raise money for @medicalaidpal.bsky.social to help Palestinians in need. On Fri I'll start & finish Metal Gear Solid, MGS2 on Sat, Delta on Sun. It'll be 9 AM PT each day on www.twitch.tv/tamoorh. Fundraiser is live on my Twitch. Please share if you can!