Microsoft's 'World of Warcraft' development workers are unionizing
More than 500 workers behind the popular video game franchisee “World of Warcraft” are unionizing
NEW YORK — More than 500 workers behind the popular video game franchisee “World of Warcraft” are unionizing.
The game's development team employees — which include designers, engineers, artists, quality assurance testers and more — are joining the Communications Workers of America, the union announced Wednesday. CWA says Microsoft subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment, World of Warcraft's publisher, has recognized the union.
The World of Warcraft Game Makers Guild — CWA Union is the first wall-to-wall union seen at Activision Blizzard and the largest of this kind at a Microsoft-owned studio to date, according to CWA. It also builds on an expansion of organized labor seen among Microsoft video game workers since the tech giant's $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard last year.
Gaming workers have been able to organize thanks to a “labor neutrality” agreement that took effect with the acquisition. In an unusual arrangement for the industry to help address concerns about the merger made back in 2022, Microsoft pledged to stay neutral if Activision Blizzard workers in the U.S. and Canada seek to organize into a labor union.
With Wednesday's World of Warcraft news, alongside other recent organizing efforts, CWA says more than 1,750 video game workers at Microsoft now have representation with the union.
“What we’ve accomplished at World of Warcraft is just the beginning," Eric Lanham, a World of Warcraft test analyst and member of the newly-formed guild said in a statement — noting that the next step is a strong contract. “We know that when workers have a protected voice, it’s a win-win for employee standards, the studio, and
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