Bethesda Game Studios is known for making some of the biggest open-world RPGs in gaming, including Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Now it will also be known for being the first major studio in the United States to unify all of its teams.
On July 19, Microsoft, the game’s owner, recognized a union representing 241 employees at Bethesda, the company behind The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises, which released the sci-fi game Starfield last year. The group, which will be represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), includes artists, designers, programmers and engineers from the studio’s roughly 450-person workforce. The news comes as Bethesda prepares to ship its new console. Shattered Space Expansion for Starfield The Fallout series is seeing a huge resurgence in popularity thanks to its release on Amazon Prime.
Unlike recent unionization efforts at Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, and others, which have focused primarily on quality assurance testers, this “full-stack” union represents workers from all the different disciplines and departments needed to produce the blockbusters Bethesda is known for. In this respect, it’s similar to the union at Sega of America, which represents employees from across the organization’s marketing, localization, and community management teams.
“We are incredibly excited to announce our union at Bethesda Game Studio and join the movement sweeping the video game industry,” said Mandy Parker, senior systems designer at Bethesda, in a statement. “It’s clear that every worker can benefit from bringing democracy to the workplace and securing a protected voice at work.”
The process went quickly and smoothly thanks to a neutrality agreement Microsoft struck with the CWA that promised not to fight union efforts or demand formal elections. Instead, employees across the company could form a union simply by showing majority support for one via a card scan or online portal. The tech giant struck the deal as part of its efforts to complete its massive $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard last year.
Unionization efforts have been slowly building in the gaming industry for years now as employees push back against cultures of extended overtime and frequent mass layoffs. That shift looks likely to gain further momentum with major players like Bethesda joining in. Union workers there will now begin negotiating their first contract. So far, only Sega of America has ratified a collective bargaining agreement at a major gaming company.
