Over 500 developers at Blizzard, making up the entire World of Warcraft team, have officially formed a union, it was announced on Wednesday.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has announced the formation of the World of Warcraft Game Makers Guild – CWA Union (WoWGG-CWA) with the Microsoft-owned organization. The new union includes all designers, engineers, producers, artists, quality assurance testers, and other game developers at Blizzard. It’s the “first wall-to-wall union at Activision Blizzard and the largest wall-to-wall union at a Microsoft-owned studio.”
“What we’ve accomplished at World of Warcraft is just the beginning,” Eric Lanham, Test Analyst and member of the WoWGG-CWA, said via release. “My colleagues and I are embarking on a quest to secure better pay, benefits, and job security through a strong union contract. We know that when workers have a protected voice, it’s a win-win for employee standards, the studio, and World of Warcraft fans looking for the best gaming experience.”
With the formation of the WoWGG-CWA, over 1,750 workers a Microsoft-owned studios have unionized. Just last week it was announced that workers at Bethesda became the first Microsoft studio to fully unionize.
“This victory, built on years of foundation work since the launch of the Game Workers Unite movement at GDC, reflects a deeply rooted commitment to change,” Tom Smith, Senior Director of Organizing at CWA, said. “Unionizing one of the most successful games ever signifies the rising power of worker solidarity across the industry, from AAA studios like SEGA and Bethesda to indie developers.”
Activision-Blizzard has yet to publicly comment on the WoWGG-CWA formation.
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Why not all of Xbox?
Can Vicarious Visions finally get back to making remakes then? THPS 3+4, THUG 1+2, Banjo 1+2, Kameo, Conker, Spyro, Jet Force Gemini, Prototype, True Crime, Tenchu, and Mech Assault. Honestly I say give them the Crash license their remakes were great unlike the TFB game and TFB’e remake of Spyro was trash.
Notice Sony still doesn’t recognize unions? Why haven’t they unionized? Why hasn’t WB Games unionized?
Good I’m happy for them. Regardless of the studio, it is getting tiring to see these companies make record profits and still lay off employees or not pay them decent wages.