The Game Studies Watchlist newsletter, curated by Prof. Dr Rudolf Inderst, is published weekly on GamesMarkt. This week's topics include the Rockstar Union trial, minor protection in the Netherlands and Game Poems.
AHOI there, game studies operators!
It makes sense for Game Studies to focus on workplace culture in game development and publishing because games are not only cultural texts but also the products of specific labor conditions, power relations, and institutional structures. The channel People Make Games just has released an interesting piece called Rockstar vs. Union: We Went to Court and Saw the Evidence.
Rockstar Games and the union members it fired last year have just made their arguments in Scottish court for the very first time. This wasn't the full hearing, but it still represented an incredibly important moment for both sides, with the possibility of "interim relief" being granted by the judge. For many of the affected workers this represented a life-changing decision and we were there as it happened.
Crunch, precarity, diversity issues, unionization efforts, and management practices shape who gets to make games, under what conditions, and which voices are heard in the final product. By examining these contexts, Game Studies can connect design decisions, narratives, and mechanics to the material realities of production, revealing how ideology, inequality, and economic pressure are embedded in games themselves. This perspective also helps move the field beyond player-centric analysis toward a more holistic understanding of games as socio-technical and socio-economic systems.
The Serious Play Conference returns August 5–7, 2026, hosted at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and they are now accepting speaker proposals seeking presenters from across industries and disciplines to share case studies, breakthroughs, and insights on how gameful approaches are making an impact in the real world.
Game Scholar Jordan Magnuson is "excited to officially launch GAME POEMS: a new *playable* literary magazine of short-form videogames." This issue features a collection of new open-access games created by a diverse group of contributors, artists, poets, scholars, students, indie developers, and lead designers from AAA studios, each offering a distinct take on what a game poem can be, in dialogue with the issue’s theme of “First Moves.” Please find Issue 1 right here:
In 2024, the The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets imposed a fine on Epic Games (Fortnite) for not sufficiently protecting minors against commercial temptations in the video game. Today, the Dutch Administrative Court of Appeals issued its ruling in the case on appeal. It upholds all aspects of our fining decision. Thanks for letting us know on LinkedIn, Dries Cuijpers.
... usually, I do not point into the direction of Instagram but I really do love the Arc Raiders in-game photo work of art.raidersoffi
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Cheers and stay healthy, Rudolf
