As games get bigger and become more cinematic (and more expensive), there will be studios that grow and grow and then make big layoffs in a lull.
The coders, designers, and need an overarching union together from which they are contracted to work on projects. In fact, the writers and designers could probably work with the existing unions in Hollywood.
The huge studios would function just like in Hollywood. And yeah they would want to pump out those blockbusters, but nothing would stop indie developers from developing. I would allow for consistent and fair discussions for the unions and studios as to how pay will be done. It will also put in safeties for crunch and other abuses.
I’m not saying Hollywood is some perfect working model. I’m just saying it makes way more sense as a model for how modern AAA games are made.
Maybe I misunderstood something in your explanation. But afaik, jobs in the videogame industry are very much like freelance jobs and the position you have today is going to be very different from whatever you will be doing in 2 years or whatever. Heck, you are lucky if your contract lasts more than six months. Same for VFX jobs.
Jobs in the video game industry (especially AAA) are mostly NOT freelance. Most are full time employee positions. Even non-AAA and specialized studios that do work-for-hire tend to have employees. Certain parts of the video game industry, like art and QA tend to be contracted or outsourced, but even then the contractors are often provided through a 3rd party company that employs and provides benefits. Contracts for engineers, designers, writers come into play for shorter periods to ramp up numbers during production and fill gaps. But that’s usually a small percentage of the team.
Most jobs in the game industry are employment, not contracts.