Roblox Development Studio ‘Gamefam’ Under Fire for Mistreating and Underpaying Former Employees
Roblox development Studio ‘Gamefam’ is being accused by a former employee for poor working conditions and discussing wages with colleagues. When Joshua DeBoer realized he was doing the work of a position above his own, he started asking around — what were other workers at Gamefam experiencing? DeBoer realized others were being underpaid, too, he alleged. “People were definitely being paid very unfairly in comparison to me, by a noticeable amount,” DeBoer told Polygon in a recent article.
DeBoer ended up taking the issue to the National Labor Relations Board in January. There, DeBoer alleged that Gamefam retaliated against him for discussing pay with his coworkers. Gamefam settled with DeBoer, agreeing to pay him $5,000 in unpaid bonuses. In the National Labor Relations Board document filed in January, the basis of the charge states that “within the previous six months, [Gamefam] disciplined or tealiated against an employee(s) because the employee(s) enaged in protected concerted activites by. inter alia, discussing wages, hours, or other terms and conditions of employment and in order to discourage employees from engaging in protected concerted activites.”
DeBoer was then suspended for a week after talking to Gamefam CEO Joe Ferencz about his salary/rank in the company, and how he was being underpaid for the work he was doing (opinion). According to a Tweet put out by DeBoer, Gamefam forced him to reveal by name who he was discussing wages with, and also threatened to fire him if he continued to do so. Gamefam also failed to pay DeBoer’s final paycheck with the company on time, and refused to let him exercise stock options after repeated attempts.
Gamefam is a global company that makes Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite games and content — typically for major brands like Sonic the Hedgehog, the NFL, Hot Wheels, and plenty more. It has staged concerts in Roblox for the likes of The Chainsmokers and Saweetie. Their website lists Marvel Studios, Mattel, Hasbro, Samsung, Ubisoft, Sega, Netflix, and Paramount Plus as some of its partners. In March, Fast Company also called Gamefam one of the “world’s most innovative companies.”
This isn’t the first time Gamefam was called out for underpaying and mistreating employees. Back in December 2022, multiple statements came out from past and present employees all banning together to show how Gamefam did them wrong. Gamefam responded to these allegations on Twitter with a statement in which they state that “We pay our devs equitably and we prioritize a healthy, happy work environment with tremendous support for our teams — these are values we live by them.”
This is a developing story. Some of the contents of this article were taken from Polygon.
