The UVW-CWA hardship fund is available to all qualifying North American games workers, even non-members. The hardship fund bundle has raised over 200k, with a final goal of 250k in the next two days. You can support it by buying over 100 games for $10 (or more) right now.
We’ve seen a huge amount of layoffs and closures in the last few years, including the massive Xbox layoffs just last month. The UVW-CWA’s Game Worker Hardship Fund was created to offer a lifeline to those impacted by loss of income as a result of industry layoffs beginning in January 2024. Per the hardship fund application form, funds can be made available to pay for “work-related expenses as well as life expenses, such as groceries, rent, medical expenses, etc.” Currently there is no way to donate directly, so purchasing the bundle here is the only option to materially support the hardship fund right now. More complete information about the mission of UVW-CWA can be found on their website.
The union asked Brandon Sheffield, director of Necrosoft Games, to coordinate the bundle. Necrosoft has contributed games to a number of itch bundles, has experience with the bundle vetting process, and organized the wildly successful Bundle for Ukraine in 2022. As Brandon outlines in the original pitch to developers, his approach is trying to create a product that will sell the most copies. “…this is about making money for charity, so making money is the focus.” Games which were previously free were not accepted. Adult content was not accepted. And so on. The result is a carefully curated bundle of well over 100 games, including some indie heavy-hitters, for just $10.
Harrison, aka Moss, used to work on Forza at Microsoft. After being laid off, they created Dungeon Bodega Simulator with a couple of friends as head of the independent studio Alien Fruit. The game is bittersweet but ultimately hopeful. Moss shared some thoughts with me on why they chose to submit it for the bundle. “It has been really heartwarming seeing the variety of devs jumping in to support our peers. I was laid off in 2025, made my game about that experience while I was unemployed, and now I get to use it to help raise money for other folks affected. Mutual aid is a big theme of my game so it only felt right to see it included with this bundle!”
I originally contacted both Brandon and Moss for comment on the lack of mid and large size studio participation in the effort. It was very easy for me to slip into cynicism, even after seeing the early success of the bundle. Based on the industry, the world, just. You know. To their credit, they each had a much more practical and hopeful outlook on the whole thing. Brandon describes two major factors.
First – the bundle being on itch is kind of a necessity for building it successfully, but most mid and large size studios don’t put their games there and aren’t likely to want to do so just to give it away for free. “Doing the bundle with any other org isn’t really viable as they’ll either take a cut, or require steam codes which is a bigger ask. Most studios don’t want to sign up for a platform just to give it away, so this bundle wouldn’t necessarily inspire them to join the itch platform.”
Second – giving away a game is a huge ask. It’s obvious, of course, but it can be an even more difficult decision for a larger studio. As Brandon points out: “if you have more mouths to feed, you’re less likely to give away the things that make money.” Tying both points together, he also explained the negative impact of having a lot of extra game keys around as a result of a bundle.
“We launched our game Hyper Gunsport in a charity bundle to benefit Turkey when the earthquakes happened there, and the result of that is there are like 100k copies of Hyper Gunsport on g2a for a dollar, because the bundle buyers just turned around and resold their steam keys. There’s much less of a market for reselling DRM-free exes, that’s the realm of piracy, which is frankly less detrimental to devs than key reselling.”
Moss pointed to their experience at Microsoft and the nature of the platforms we choose. “I used to work at Xbox on Forza, which has one of the biggest partnerships teams in gaming. I’ve seen how slow big orgs and publishers move. I totally understand being disappointed there were not more of them, but as far as I’m aware, most of this bundle was organized on Bluesky, which is not really where the stakeholders for AA/AAA games hang out.”
This, too, feels correct. And I think it also speaks to the power we have in building community. The numbers may be comparatively small on Bluesky, but we still saw a wellspring of support. “I honestly think how fast the bundle moved and was still able to get 100+ games regardless and raise 100k+ is a testament to how ready the community is to support devs.” Of course, Moss and I spoke about a week ago so the bundle has moved well beyond that initial 100k.
UVW-CWA has already distributed around $25k to over 30 applicants and stands within striking distance to bring in ten times that from sales of the Hardship Bundle. If you are willing and able to materially support the bundle, you can purchase it here for access to an incredibly wide range of titles. These include Arranger, A Short Hike, Dungeon Bodega Simulator, holedown, Repurpose, Hyper Gunsport, You Can Save Everyone, and In the Absence of Pain.
Trailer editor Duncan Robson has created a trailer for the bundle itself and compiled a playlist of the trailers for most of the individual games as well. If you can’t purchase the bundle right now, don’t worry about it. This is but one opportunity of many that we will have to support our friends, peers, and creators we admire. Whether you purchase the bundle or not, please consider sharing the info as we enter the home stretch with about 30k left to the final goal of 250k.
