The World of Warcraft development team has announced it has formed a wall-to-wall union called the World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild, which will be part of the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The union consists of 500 staff members and will be the first team at Blizzard to have unionized. And yes, the union has already been recognized by Microsoft.
The guild posted the announcement on the X social media platform, saying that “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!”
This is just the latest in several unionization announcements that have taken place in the video games industry. Less than a week ago another one of Microsoft’s development teams, Bethesda, formed its own wall-to-wall union that’s also part of CWA. Moreover, Zenimax Studios did the same back in January of this year. This is in large part because of a labor neutrality agreement between Microsoft and the CWA, which went into effect after the company acquired Activision Blizzard.
The video games industry has been rough for workers these last two years with thousands of layoffs taking place at game studios large and small, which has probably been the leading driver in the unionization movement currently taking place. Eric Lanham, test analyst and member of this newest guild, says that “my colleagues and I are embarking on a quest to secure better pay, benefits, and job security through a strong union contract.”
It’s highly likely that these kind of unionization announcements continue to be made, especially if there continues to be big studio closures or layoffs.