A group of video game testers at Microsoft’s ZeniMax Studios have formed a labor union with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). This will be the first time that Microsoft has had a union in the United States and this group is said to be the largest union in the video game industry.
ZeniMax is home to almost 300 quality assurance workers, most of whom have voted to join the union. They say the reason for forming this union is to address workplace concerns that are common at video game companies.
According to senior game tester at Zenimax, Wayne Dayberry, “Throughout the industry, the quality assurance departments are treated poorly, paid very little, and treated as replaceable cogs.”
On its part, Microsoft has said that it will accept the formation of the union, but at its Maryland-based video game subsidiary. Perhaps for starters.
Microsoft had in 2021, acquired Zenimax for $7.5b and took control of ZeniMax’s well-known game publishing division, Bethesda Softworks, and popular game franchises such as The Elder Scrolls, Doom, and Fallout. Meanwhile Microsoft is also in the process of a $68.7billion acquisition of gaming company, Activision Blizzard, owners of Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk’s, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush Saga and many more.
Microsoft’s ‘acceptance’ of the union is in line with its potential acquisition of Activision Blizzard, indicating the increasing importance of fair labor practices in the video game industry. In fact, Microsoft agreed to remain neutral if Activision Blizzard employees decided to form a union with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union in June last year. However, as of December 2022, the acquisition is still being wrangled between Microsoft and the US Federal Trade Commission.
The agency is seeking to block Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard because the $69 billion deal, Microsoft’s largest ever and the largest ever in the video gaming industry, would enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.
While that is developing, Beth Allen, a spokesperson for the CWA has said “They (Microsoft) have definitely stood by their word all along… It’s pretty momentous. Microsoft is an outlier in the way tech companies have been behaving.” Dayberry added, “This is a big step forward for all of us and for the entire industry. We hope that this will help improve working conditions and bring some much-needed stability to the field.”
As the industry continues to expand and evolve, it will be interesting to see how this union and others like it shape the future of video game development and testing.
