AUSTIN, Texas — Sixty Blizzard Entertainment quality assurance employees in Austin have officially been recognized as part of a union.
These workers are now part of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), garnering recognition from Microsoft subsidiary company Blizzard as part of a labor neutrality agreement.
"We are honored to welcome the quality assurance workers of Blizzard Entertainment to CWA," CWA District 6 vice president Derrick Osobase said. "And we look forward to signing a collective bargaining agreement with Microsoft that improves their conditions of work and reflects the value of their contributions to Blizzard's products."
More than 1,750 Microsoft video game employees are now represented under the CWA after Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard in 2022. A large portion of these staff members work on role-play video game Diablo and online card game Hearthstone, both of which are owned by Blizzard Entertainment.
More than 500 World of Warcraft quality assurance testers, developers and other team members are also now part of the union, which is another Blizzard product. More than 200 employees with Bethesda Game Studios -the creator of popular video games like Fallout and Starfield- were also recently recognized.
These aren't the only video game publishers to join the CWA. Others include Activision Publishing, Inc., which owns Call of Duty, and SEGA of America, the owners of games including Tetris and Sonic the Hedgehog.
As layoffs become more common for some video game employees, labor organizations have also started to form. This includes Game Workers Unite, which was created approximately six years ago and now includes more than 20 chapters worldwide.
