100+ indie games for $10 on itch.io, all proceeds supporting laid-off game devs

Necrosoft Games and the United Videogame Workers-CWA union have launched the Game Industry Hardship Fund bundle on itch.io — over 100 games (some sources put the count closer to 150) for a minimum of $10, with all proceeds minus processing fees going to the UVW-CWA's worker hardship fund for laid-off developers. The bundle runs until August 13–14 and has already raised close to $30,000.

The hardship fund distributes cash directly to game developers, contractors, and freelancers in the US and Canada who were laid off after January 2024 — you don't need to be a union member to apply, and funds can cover food, healthcare, and rent. The bundle is pay-what-you-want above the $10 floor, so you can chip in more if you want to do extra for out-of-work devs. Highlights in the lineup include A Short Hike, SkateBIRD, Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure, and Lucah: Born of a Dream, alongside a long tail of offbeat indie games most players will never have heard of.

The bundle lands against a grim backdrop: the 2026 GDC State of the Game Industry report found that over a quarter of all developers have been laid off in the last two years — a figure that climbs to roughly one in three when you look at the US alone. Microsoft's decision in July to cut 3,200 people and shut down four studios was the loudest recent example, but layoffs have been a near-weekly story across large publishers and small studios alike. Necrosoft director Brandon Sheffield, who organized the bundle, has been vocal about the human cost behind those numbers.

The UVW-CWA thanked players on Bluesky for spreading the word, calling player-developer solidarity "a critical component for driving positive change." The bundle is live now on itch.io and stays open through mid-August — even one good game out of 100-plus is solid value, and the cause makes it an easy sell.