Between Stability and Mobility: Why International Game Workers Enter and Leave the Czech Game Industry

This paper investigates evaluations of the Czech game industry and its game studios among internationals. By longitudinally interviewing 28 foreign game developers, I discuss their perspectives on 10 Czech studios: 6 GaaP (game as a product) and 4 GaaS (game as a service). I identified differences between GaaP and GaaS studios in: (1) push/pull factors, (2) pre-job expectations, (3) shock factors during production, and (4) respondents’ career plans. Czech GaaS studios were attractive in strong player communities and job stability, and Czech GaaP studios in emerging franchises and new technologies. Shock factors in Czech GaaS studios were related to their older technologies and subordination of creative visions to players’ needs, whereas in Czech GaaP studios, internationals reported a lack of integration into creative visions of new IPs. Internationals in both GaaS and GaaP studios planned to stay only in the short term, but were also retained by the commercial successes of long-standing titles in GaaS studios and prospects of working on titles within the same franchise in GaaP studios. While internationals saw the Czech game industry as diversified, it retains its semi-peripheral status in lower salaries, use of older technologies, and niche game genres.