World of Warcraft (Surprise! Wow) artists, designers, engineers, producers, quality assurance (QA) testers, and other game developers. More than 500 employees voted to merge the Blizzard Entertainment studio with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). World of Warcraft Players Guildaccording to the letter X from the official account of the union.
Blizzard is the latest major game studio to unionize amid uncertain layoffs and studio closures in the gaming industry. Bethesda Game Studios, the studio behind it Fallout and The Elder Scrolls franchise formed its union last weekend with the help of the CWA, which included 241 workers.
“What we’ve got in World of Warcraft is just the beginning,” test analyst and Wow Gamemakers Guild member Eric Lanham said in a statement released by CWA. “My colleagues and I are embarking on a quest to secure better wages, benefits and job security through a strong union contract. We know that when employees have a protected voice, it’s a win-win for employee standards, the studio, and World of Warcraft fans seeking the best gaming experience.”
We are the World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild: the first wall-to-wall union in Blizzard! We’re excited to include WoW’s QA, Art, Audio, Design, Engineering, and Production voices for a democratized workplace. We are together in this crucial moment of the Games. For Azeroth! pic.twitter.com/ieewW5KFuI
— WoW Players Guild (@WoWGG_CWA) July 24, 2024
The World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild is currently the largest wall-to-wall community under the Microsoft umbrella. Activity It merged nearly 600 QA employees with CWA in March. ZeniMax Studios In January, it voted to unionize nearly 300 workers.
It also reached an agreement with Microsoft Activision Blizzard two years ago it respected the right of its workers to form trade unions. The deal was part of Microsoft’s deal to take over Activision Blizzard.
The CWA refers to the 2021 strike by Activision Blizzard employees that led to the formation of the WoW Gamemakers Guild. walk At its headquarters in Irvine, California on the court by the state’s Department of Civil Rights (CRD), alleging that the company was “a breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.” CRD later dropped all allegations of systemic sexual harassment, and Activision Blizzard settled for $54.8 million over pay and promotion discrepancies. WoW studio too agreed to remove “inappropriate references [its] from the game “world”.
“What seemed impossible six years ago is now a reality, and this is just the beginning,” CWA Chief Organizing Officer Tom Smith said in a written statement. “Together, workers are redefining their industry.”
