Firewalk released Concord, a game branded as a competitive 5v5 shooter, on August 23, 2024 with a disastrous launch. The game itself received mediocre reviews and only 10 days later, Sony would pull the game offline and refund every person that had bought the game. Between that day and October 29^th, Sony would declare they “have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options” then proceed to lay off all 172 employees at Firewalk. It is estimated the industry has suffered over 13,000 layoffs in the year 2024. But these layoffs and others at Sony are a result of a company that is attempting to break into an already oversaturated genre (specifically, live service games) and when exorbitant profits are not realized, workers suffer instead.

This also leads us into the discussion on the unsustainable cost of making video games in 2024. Some of the most popular games such as the Spiderman series, God of War, and others have budgets of tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, with Sony having spent over $400 million on Concord. These ballooning budgets put workers in an even more precarious situation when projects do not develop as management expect, eventually leading to cutting staff amidst the unattainable goals set before them.

The CWA in a statement on the closures warned that these layoffs are a “cautionary warning sign of Sony’s interest in furthering its monopoly position in the video game industry”. Currently, Sony owns 19 studios compared to Microsoft’s 23 studios and both companies have been aggressively acquiring in the last four years. While Microsoft has agreed to neutrality with the CWA on union organizing, there does not appear to be any unionized studios at Sony. The video game industry in general has seen a shift in unionizing in the last three years as workers realize their best defense against layoffs is fighting for a contract with protections against the recklessness of these companies and their executives.

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“You can tell just by talking to people how much they care about one another and the work that they do in the game. I think that that’s where [the unionization effort] comes from, the desire to stand together to fight for collective bargaining rights at the table.”

Kathryn Friesen, World of Warcraft designer

• Workers were able to organize openly including CWA tents on campuses due to the neutrality agreement signed between the union and Microsoft back in June 2022 meaning there would be no retaliation for union organizing. So far in the United States, there have been six unions representing 1,750 workers formed since 2022. Organizing started as far back as 2021 when Activision Blizzard was sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing for discrimination against female employees. At the time, the company had not been acquired yet by Microsoft and many organizing efforts were met with retaliation including employment termination.

“This victory underscores the growing momentum of worker organizing in the video game industry and will hopefully continue to inspire other video game workers to form unions and raise industry-wide expectations for pay, benefits and respect for workers’ rights”.

CWA on the WWGMG unionizing

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Microsoft has recognized the union according to the CWA who have had a string of success organizing workers at the tech giant among its subsidiaries ZeniMax, Blizzard, and Raven Software.

“We are so excited to announce our union at Bethesda Game Studio and join the movement sweeping across the video game industry. It is clear that every worker can benefit from bringing democracy into the workplace and securing a protected voice on the job. We’re thrilled to get down to brass tacks and win a fair contract, proving that our unity is a source of real power to positively shape our working conditions, our lives, and the company as a whole.”

• Mandi Parker, Senior System Designer and CWA member

The video game industry has been tumultuous in recent years between studio closures, acquisitions, and layoffs. This has prompted an explosive campaign as workers organize to secure their jobs while also gaining benefits and better working conditions. The CWA’s Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA) has been at the center of the upsurge in organizing inside and outside Microsoft. Workers at Bethesda Game Studios will be joining members in CWA Locals 2108 in Maryland and 6215 in Texas respectively.

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This news comes as studios across the industry have suffered massive layoffs totaling over 8,000 positions. The CWA was able to secure severance benefits for temporary workers and save a number of jobs at Sega in the Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS), but the industry is still massively unorganized in the US as the number of workers totals over 260,000, meaning unions currently make up less than 1%.

The CWA and Microsoft reached a labor neutrality agreement back in June of 2022 that would begin 60 days after the acquisition of Activision.

“This agreement provides a pathway for Activision Blizzard workers to exercise their democratic rights to organize and collectively bargain after the close of the Microsoft acquisition and establishes a high road framework for employers in the games industry. Microsoft’s binding commitments will give employees a seat at the table and ensure that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard benefits the company’s workers and the broader video game labor market.”

CWA President Chris Shelton on labor neutrality agreement

Workers at AQAU are the first to organize under the agreement, but Microsoft also chose a neutral stance towards organizing efforts last year at Zenimax Studios. The workers at Activision will join CODE-CWA along with other tech workers in various industries and companies and joining CWA Locals 9400 (California), 6215 (Texas), and 7250 (Minnesota) respectively.

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The negotiations took a total of six months between AEGIS-CWA and Sega, but that wasn’t without retaliation from the company. In January, the company announced they would be laying off 61 temporary employees which affected the overall morale of the union at the time. However, AEGIS was able to save 18 of those jobs and win severance packages for those that would be laid off.

“One of our most notable items is our grievance process. There’s extra security knowing we have in place a system for bringing issues to the table, such as arguing just cause in a potential layoff. If the company wants to do something that the unit doesn’t like, we can grieve it, bargain over it, have our say before anything is finalized.”

Em Geiger, an employee of Sega of America in an interview with Polygon

While AEGIS-CWA is the first union to win a contract, many game developers and quality assurance (QA) workers across the industry have expressed their intent to unionize including workers at Zenimax, Activision, Blizzard, and Raven Software. AEGIS-CWA is a part of local 9510 in Orange, California.

The post Sega Workers Ratify First Ever Union Contract in Video Game Industry first appeared on Labor Today.