Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Circulations and Biographies of French Game Workers in a ‘Global Games’ Era :

Abstract

The video game industry has experienced profound socio-technical changes during the last decade: a significant demographic growth, production of games as service, democratization of game design know-how and tools, and extended access to globalized markets due to dematerialization of distribution networks. Based on a large ongoing survey, including 40 in-depth interviews, our chapter discusses the current situation of video game production in France. A narrow labour market is here combined with a very high turnover, probably due to early career exits, and with a paradoxically overwhelming training offer. By looking at career trajectories, our biographical approach explores the circulation of game workers in the intertwining of local and global, national and international, mainstream and indie game production worlds.