ERMeCC lunch seminar

Platforms, entrepreneurship, and precarity in the Dutch game industry: from 1990 to now

Anne Heslinga

Recent research and legislation signal growing concern for the ways in which platforms contribute to unstable working conditions and practices in cultural industries. Despite the prominent role platforms play in the game industry, little empirical research has considered how platforms have unevenly impacted game developers in diverse local contexts. This paper uses interviews with developers in the Netherlands, supplemented by grey literature concerning the Dutch game industry, to consider the ways in which local game development in the Netherlands has become contingent upon a limited number of distribution platforms. 

The findings of this research indicate that distribution platforms have exacerbated precarious conditions for developers in The Netherlands. They have done so by embedding developers in global platform markets where they face steep competition, unclear terms of access, and individualized financial risk. The research finds that the local continues to play an important role in mitigating platform-based precarity by offering 1) alternatives to platform markets, 2) policies which improve the position of developers in relation to platforms, and 3) possibilities for collective action. The presentation will also briefly overview the planned contribution of this research for local and regional policy.