Less than half of devs say their employers enforce harassment and anti-discrimination policies
The International Game Developers Association released its 2023 Developer Satisfaction Survey today, which saw developers highlight numerous issues including equity, diversity, and inclusion, layoffs, and crunch.
Data for IGDA's survey was collected between May 17 and October 20, 2023, and included responses from 777 game makers.
43% of developers felt that policies on general non-discrimination, equal opportunity hiring, and sexual harassment were "adequately enforced".
28% of those surveyed reported that their workplace had no equality, diversity, and inclusion programs, while 38% of workplaces had a formal complaint procedure for these issues in place.
These statistics are concerning given the number of harassment and discrimination accusations that have been made against games companies of all sizes in recent years.
85% of respondents said they believe diversity is important to highlight within the industry, workplace, and in-game content.
More than half of developers (58%) said the industry had become more diverse over the past two years, compared to 49% in 2021, while 67% of those surveyed felt that there was not equal treatment and opportunity.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, IDGA executive director Jakin Vela said that the industry still needs "to understand the implications of diversity, especially from a global perspective, and how that can differ across cultures and regions."
In terms of diversity, 31% of respondents identified as women which was up only 1% from 2021. Vela also indicated that 4% of developers surveyed were Black and 7% were Latinx.
IGDA's survey also provided insight into the recent wave of layoffs, which found that 10,500 jobs had been lost over 2023. 4.8% of developers said they were currently unemployed.
Developers reported a slight decrease in crunch at 28% compared to 33% in 2021. 63% of employees, 64% of freelancers, and 75% of self-employed said they'd crunched during development more than twice in the past two years.
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