Days after losing a “friendly” race to Bethesda staff, over 500 World of Warcraft devs unionize at Blizzard: “Never happier to be outrun”
Just days after Bethesda Game Studios became the first Xbox division to form a “wall-to-wall” union, over 500 devs working on World of Warcraft have now done the same at Blizzard.
The WoW Gamemaker’s Guild announced its formation in partnership with the Communications Workers of America earlier today. “We’re the World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild: the first wall-to-wall union at Blizzard,” the group says in a tweet. “We’re thrilled to include WoW’s QA, Art, Sound, Design, Engineering and Production voices for a democratized workplace. At this crucial moment in games, we stand together as one. For Azeroth!”
We’re the World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild: the first wall-to-wall union at Blizzard! We’re thrilled to include WoW’s QA, Art, Sound, Design, Engineering and Production voices for a democratized workplace. At this crucial moment in games, we stand together as one. For Azeroth! pic.twitter.com/ieewW5KFuIJuly 24, 2024
Senior producer Samuel Cooper, a developer involved in helping organize the unionization push, tells IGN that there was a sort of friendly race between the unionizing workers at Bethesda and Blizzard. “In a friendly way, we were seeing who was going to squeak in there first,” Cooper says. “Never happier to be outrun. Huge congratulations to them.”
The next step for the union will be contract negotiations with Microsoft, which will determine the specific protections offered to employees. Senior quest designer Paul Cox additionally tells IGN that two key issues are pay equity and the option to work from home. Activision Blizzard controversially ended full remote work in 2023.
A spokesperson for Microsoft tells Variety that “We continue to support our employees’ right to choose how they are represented in the workplace, and we will engage in good faith negotiations with the CWA as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement.”