Gamefam Under Fire Again for Mistreating Former Employee, and what this means for Developers on the Roblox Platform.
Recently, the large Roblox development studio “Gamefam” has received criticism after being accused by a former employee Joshua DeBoer relating to poor working conditions and discussions of wages with colleagues. In a complaint sent to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), DeBoer alleges that Gamefam “retaliated against him for discussing pay with his coworkers.” The complaint was settled, with Gamefam agreeing to pay him $5,000 in unpaid bonuses. You can find out more about this situation by reading the Bloxy News article.
Gamefam is one of the largest development studios on the Roblox platform but additionally makes content in Minecraft and Fortnite. The studio has worked with multiple partners including Mattel, Hasbro, Samsung, Ubisoft, Sega, Netflix, and more according to their website. In March, Fact Company called Gamefam one of the “world’s most innovative companies.” Though this isn’t the first time the popular studio has been accused of unfair practices. On December 2022, multiple statements came out from past and present employees relating to the mistreatment of employees. This resulted in a statement by the studio on Twitter stating “We pay our devs equitably and we prioritize a healthy, happy work environment with tremendous support for our teams — these are values we live by them.”
Though, what does this mean for developers on the platform? I believe this, along with other incidents on the platform, should be an indicator to everyone that you’re rights as an individual and as an employee are just as important regardless if you work for a “Roblox development studio” instead of a more “traditional” development studio. Over the past years, there has been a slow shift to larger more businessy studios on the platform as the platform continues to grow in size and the demand for large experiences to push out regular and large content updates. But regardless if you intend on working for one of these more “serious” development studios, it is still very important to understand and defend your rights and stand by your fellow developers in helping them do the same. Because if we show that developers won’t stand up for subpar treatment, it will ultimately have a positive impact on how every developer under these studios is treated.
Additionally, I believe it shows Roblox needs to re-evaluate how they work with developers and development studios. Roblox may not control these studios legally, but by allowing these studios to get away with these practices, it indicates that either Roblox is alright with the practices occurring or that they’re unwilling to do anything about the situation. I believe it would be beneficial if Roblox were to stand by developers on the platform by indicating to these studios that the wrongful treatment of employees may lead to punishment on the Roblox platform.
