Everything to Play For - Or Is It?

When "Everything to Play For: How Videogames Are Changing the World" was published by Verso in 2024, it argued that we need to take games seriously not simply as entertainment, but as one of the major cultural and political spaces of our time. Videogames are where some of the harshest practices of contemporary capitalism are being tested out, where reactionary politics and fascism have found fertile ground - but they are also where some of the most ambitious art is being made, extraordinary communities are forming into resistance networks, and a young trade union movement is burgeoning. The contradictions are still there, but the stakes have only become more acute.
Since its release, the book has travelled (or is on its way) into 8 languages and a variety of geographical contexts, giving me the opportunity to speak with gamedevs, players, journalists and policy workers from Buenos Aires to Taipei, from New York to Vilnius.

Those conversations have made the questions at the heart of the book feel both more urgent and more complicated. The industry is consolidating further, studios are closing, new centers of game development are emerging in places with very different political and labour conditions, funding is being redirected towards AI, and entire ecosystems of creative and critical work are being squeezed. So, two years on, I’d like to reflect: what are the victories, and where have divisions and power only become more acute? What are collectives around the world doing to make this industry a more interesting place, and where are the new battlefields? In short - what is there left to play for?