World of Warcraft developers at Blizzard Entertainment have formed a wall-to-wall union comprising over 500 employees in a multitude of disciplines – art, engineering, production, design, QA, and beyond. The newly-named World of Warcraft Game Makers Guild (WoWGG–CWA) is under the purview of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and has been officially recognised by Microsoft, under its 2022 labour neutrality agreement.
The WoWGG-CWA is the second major union to form under Microsoft this week, following the establishment of Bethesda’s all-encompassing OneBGS USA union. Both share goals of protecting the rights of employees, after a year of turmoil in the games industry.
“This victory underscores the growing momentum of worker organising in the video game industry and will hopefully continue to inspire other video game workers to form unions and raise industry-wide expectations for pay, benefits and respect for workers’ rights,” the CWA said in a press release.
Speaking to Game Developer, union member Kevin Vigue described the union formation as a method to ensure “every voice matters” at the company. Blizzard Entertainment has been through a tumultuous few years recently, with the company facing down a variety of lawsuits, and later being purchased by Microsoft in one of the largest acquisitions in the history of the games industry.
Read: Bethesda employees have unionised to protect workplace rights
Blizzard has also recently faced sweeping layoffs initiated by Microsoft, in the attempt to cut costs in ‘these challenging economic times.’ In the formation of its union, the developers of World of Warcraft aim to improve overall job security, and ensure future contract bargaining begins in the best possible place.
“We want to both improve our working conditions and protect the things we love about Blizzard, all so we can feel secure in pouring our talents and passion into making World of Warcraft,” Vigue told Game Developer.
“We organised not just for ourselves, but also our fellow employees who make the game with us. By ensuring we’re all treated fairly in our own workplace, we can focus ourselves on our shared passion: making great video games.”
Vigue stated the group’s union efforts predated recent layoffs at Blizzard Entertainment and Microsoft, but these events solidified the need for employees to bargain together, with a collective voice. Going forward, the newly-formed WoWGG-CWA (and its simultaneously-formed companion, Texas Blizzard QA United-CWA) will work towards a new contract for employees, while considering the most important bargaining items to ensure a brighter future at Blizzard Entertainment.
