The game development industry is one of Sweden's fastest-growing, but still lacks a collective agreement. According to Thomas Andrén, this has been requested by both employees and trade unions for a long time.
But nothing has happened – until now.
We have been sitting with the trade unions for many years and what we see now is a result of those talks. The collective agreements that already exist do not quite fit us, and we see a need for a tailored agreement for our industry, says Thomas Andrén and emphasizes that it is also an advantage for employers:
Confirmation for the industry
We operate in a hyper-globalized industry and compete with studios worldwide. That's why it's important that we are attractive. It's about a confirmation for us as an industry. The game industry is probably the largest cultural export we have in Sweden today. We hire an incredible number of people and need to live up to that.
In the beginning of the year, Thomas Andrén, together with a number of other game developers, took the initiative to form a working group that will draft a proposal for a collective agreement. Today, about ten game developers in Sweden are part of the group to discuss needs together with local and national trade unions.
It will be incredibly exciting to see the result and the hope is, of course, that we will get a agreement, he says.
Employees are positive
Malmö-based Sharkmob is one of the game developers that are part of the working group and sees major advantages with a collective agreement that is specifically designed for the industry.
We are not purely media, we are not purely technology, and we don't fit into the industry side either. We need to find something that can satisfy this mix of professionals required to make a game, says Fredrik Rundqvist, CEO of Sharkmob.
According to him, the company's employees have already expressed themselves positively to the initiative. It's very many who are affiliated with the trade union. It doesn't have to mean that they are affiliated with a collective agreement. Many want it, and we understand it, but then it's also about bringing forward an industry-specific agreement, he says.
In 2023, there were over 1,000 active game companies, of which 108 were new, in Sweden.
A total of 644 people were newly employed, which is an increase of nearly eight percent.
In total, the industry employed over 9,000 people in Sweden and nearly 16,000 internationally.
Together with subsidiaries, the Swedish game companies' global turnover was SEK 90.4 billion.
The total turnover of the 23 listed game companies was SEK billion, which is a tripling since 2020.
Source: The Game Industry, trade organization
