After a summer of studio closures and layoffs, game developers did something concrete for each other. On July 25, 2026, Necrosoft Games launched a pay-what-you-want itch.io bundle of more than 100 DRM-free games, with a $10 minimum, to raise money for the Game Worker Hardship Fund run by United Videogame Workers, the Communications Workers of America’s industry-wide union (UVW-CWA). The bundle ran for two weeks, until August 13, and by its final week it had raised more than $170,000 toward a $200,000 goal.

Why it was needed

The layoffs of the past few years are not abstract. GDC’s 2026 State of the Game Industry survey of more than 2,300 developers found that 28% had been laid off in the previous two years, rising to a third of respondents in the United States. This summer alone brought the Xbox restructuring, with about 3,200 job cuts and four studios spun off or sold, the 51 proposed layoffs at Ubisoft Barcelona after Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, and the loss of the entire nine-person Luna Abyss team at Kwalee Labs weeks after launch.

Many of the people affected shipped successful, well-reviewed games. The forces that ended their jobs had little to do with their individual performance.

How the fund works

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According to Aftermath’s reporting, the hardship fund makes grants in two tiers, under $1,000 and from $1,000 to $5,000, to game workers in North America facing financial hardship. Before the bundle, it had already distributed more than $25,000 to about 30 applicants, some of whom described losing housing, relying on food assistance or delaying medical treatment.

Check the fund’s current page for eligibility rules and how to apply; they can change between funding rounds.

What mutual aid can and cannot do

A grant of a few thousand dollars does not replace a salary. It can cover a month’s rent, a prescription that was being put off, or the gap between a final paycheck and a new job. For the person receiving it, that matters a great deal.

What a fund like this cannot do is scale to the size of the problem. Even at its full $200,000 goal, at the maximum grant of $5,000, the bundle would fund 40 people. The organizers’ larger point is that organized collective action can raise real money quickly, and that the infrastructure built once can be used again.

Why itch.io works for this

Itch.io has a long tradition of charity bundles. The Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality in 2020 raised more than $8 million. Pay-what-you-want pricing works without friction there, and the audience skews toward people who actively want to support independent developers, which is why a $10 minimum can turn into tens of thousands of contributions.

If you have been laid off

Beyond hardship grants, a few steps are worth taking early:

  • Review your separation terms for severance, notice, benefits continuation and any unvested bonuses or equity before you sign anything.
  • Apply for unemployment benefits promptly, since eligibility and waiting periods depend on where you live.
  • Update your portfolio while the work is fresh. For producers, that means the milestones you delivered, the scope decisions you made and their outcomes; see what to show hiring managers and our interview question bank.

Sources

Photo: RDNE Stock project via Pexels