The Video Game Industry Is Unionizing
This summer, World of Warcraft and Bethesda Game Studios workers joined the growing number of video game developers organizing with Communications Workers of America. We spoke with some of the workers and organizers who have been unionizing the industry.
Union organizers at World of Warcraft sought to break down the two-tier structure that separates quality assurance workers from their fellow developers. (Sascha Schuermann / Getty Images)
Last month, 461 video game workers with Microsoft’s ZeniMax Online Studios announced they were unionizing with the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees–Communications Workers of America (CODE-CWA). ZeniMax employees join over six thousand workers across the tech and video game industry in the United States and Canada who have now unionized with CODE-CWA since its creation in 2020. That now includes unions at major video game studios like Sega of America, Blizzard, and Bethesda, as well as games like World of Warcraft.
For Jacobin, senior director of organizing at CWA Tom Smith recently moderated a roundtable with a number of video game workers and organizers who have been trying to unionize the industry in recent years. They discussed how union efforts at their workplaces started, how unions have helped workers navigate difficult times in the industry, and what might be next for the labor movement in video games.
Tom Smith
It was a hot labor summer in terms of video game worker organizing, with workers at big AAA studios like Bethesda and Blizzard joining the movement and becoming Communications Workers of America members.
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