#zenimax union

[iww-gnv]

On Thursday morning, before my first sip of coffee, the alerts started flooding my phone. My employer, Microsoft, was laying off 1,900 workers and it was all over the news. I work at the video game company ZeniMax, which was acquired in 2021 by Microsoft, so I felt a familiar, sickening feeling start to take hold. But I can’t say it came as a surprise. So many people in our industry have lost their jobs this way recently. In 2023, at least 6,500 video game workers were laid off (unofficial trackers have that number much higher). And even before this latest round, 2024 hadn’t shown any sign of improvement. The video game industry is huge. It was bigger than the movie and music industries combined following the 2020 pandemic surge, and while it has dropped a bit since then, it remains a multibillion-dollar industry. However, it’s still relatively young and lacks a history of successful worker organizing.

[ejacutastic]

A supermajority of quality assurance workers at Microsoft’s ZeniMax Studios have indicated that they wish to join ZeniMax Workers United/CWA either by signing a union authorization card or voting via an online portal. In accordance with its stated labor principles, Microsoft has recognized the union.

ZeniMax is a video game production company with studios in Maryland and Texas known for its popular games such as Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Quake Champions, and Fallout. ZeniMax Workers United/CWA is the first studio at Microsoft to secure union representation, and the largest group of union-represented Quality Assurance testers at any U.S. game studio. [...]

Unlike other video game and tech corporations, Microsoft made a public commitment around its labor principles which included respecting its employees’ right to form a union. When ZeniMax employees announced that they were organizing a union in December, Microsoft agreed to remain neutral and allow workers to make their own decision about whether or not to join the union. The company swiftly recognized ZeniMax Workers United/CWA after a neutral third party confirmed that a majority of workers favored joining the union. [...]

"It's difficult to express in words just how much winning our union matters to us. We've been working so hard to get here that it would be impossible not to be excited. We know this is not the end of our hard work, but reaching this milestone gives us faith that when workers stand together, we can accomplish anything we set our minds to," said Dylan Burton, Senior QA Tester, Dallas.

Zenimax Workers United/CWA joins the wave of game and tech workers at Activision, Alphabet, Apple, and dozens of other companies who have organized with CODE-CWA to build a better workplace.

[davidsmith24]

Labor Union Recognized at 1 ZeniMax Studios by Tech Giant Microsoft

Employees at Microsoft’s ZeniMax Studios successfully voted to form the tech giant’s first union in the United States. The Microsoft-approved union was supported by an “overwhelming majority” of ZeniMax workers, according to the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union. Popular games like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout are produced by ZeniMax Studios, a video game development studio. Following a pattern of stepped-up unionization efforts in the US tech sector, ZeniMax decided to unionize.

Other companies such as Apple, Amazon, and Google have also faced industrial action and union organizing efforts in recent years as workers demand more from employers as the cost of living rises.

It is yet to be seen how the company’s future interactions with its employees will be impacted by the existence of a union.

In ZeniMax

Microsoft has recognized the WashTech (WashTech) Washington Alliance as the first alliance of one of the US studios, ZeniMax.

WashTech, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), represents around 300 quality assurance workers at ZeniMax’s offices in Maryland and Texas.

Furthermore, the union will allow collective bargaining over issues such as pay and working conditions and aims to improve job opportunities and reduce overwork and unfair pay practices.

By voluntarily agreeing to bargain with unionized employees, Microsoft avoids a formal process overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, which can often lead to legal battles.

The CWA has also been involved in unionization efforts at gaming company Activision Blizzard, which has resisted the campaigns. Last year, Microsoft announced a deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, which prompted the government to sue to block the deal over competition concerns.

As part of its efforts to win support for the merger, Microsoft struck a pact with the CWA to remain neutral in labor disputes. It is still being determined how the new union at ZeniMax will affect Microsoft’s operations.

“We look forward to engaging in good faith negotiations as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement,” the spokesperson stated. Read More….

[hustlerose]

huge W

[majorarlene]

Re: Mick Gordon, Marty Stratton, Doom Eternal OST

I want to start off by saying that absolutely none of this should have happened. I mean, obviously.

I’m not going to break the entire article down but please be sure to read here: https://medium.com/@mickgordon/my-full-statement-regarding-doom-eternal-5f98266b27ce 1. much of the first couple of sections just highlights the issues the AAA part of the gaming industry has as a whole, therefore unionization is important. 2. know consumer protection laws, whether you’re a subcontractor or not- or seek legal counsel if you are able. this is not to blame Mick for this piece, this was still Marty’s responsibility to communicate those deadlines clearly, but when working in AAA the game is different. 3. volunteering a contractor before a contract is written is absolutely ghoulish behavior on id’s part. 4. a few people will likely ask “why didn’t Mick complain about not getting paid sooner” and as an accountant, I can tell you that if you’re trying to get work out the door on insane deadlines, you’re going to either forget to invoice things or if on contract, you shouldn’t have to fucking worry about that? contracts are there for a reason and id knew the agreement, it should not be an employee or subcontractor’s job to remind their employer to pay them. dunno how accounting works in the AAA industry but it would never fly where I work. 5. Marty posting his statement on REDDIT as the original source is awful behavior and completely unprofessional. Not even on a company-run Reddit, but a Reddit run and moderated by volunteers (r/Doom) whom ultimately should have never been dragged into this issue. Since Mick’s statement, mods have been harassed and have quit moderating. I know some of the mods and they absolutely do not deserve this treatment. I imagine being told by the executive producer of the game you love that if you take his post down you’ll likely be threatened with legal action would not be a great situation to be in. 6. The lawyers at Zenimax sound like they’d have been great on Theranos’s team (hint, not a good thing). some other thoughts: - from how it sounds, id needs to be clearly communicating to Bethesda/Zenimax its legal needs because it cannot handle them on its own. - Marty should never produce a game again. or if he does, he needs to be kept a mile away from press because he cannot be trusted to handle it safely. - I hope Mick finally gets the compensation he deserves. Musicians are just as much contractors as they are creators, especially in circumstances where they are being told they need to create music for levels that haven’t even been conceptualized yet. Musicians should be paid for the hours they spend formulating as well as the songs they ultimately produce. - the harassment of the creator of an OST is absolutely disgusting and gamer entitlement needs to be addressed. fuck anyone who engaged in the behavior described. - Review bombing on Steam will not fix this issue. harassment of anyone involved will not fix this issue. frank discussions about how creators of all kinds in the industry will.

[farsight-the-char]

Interesting.

I wish them well.

[zvaigzdelasas]

6 Dec 22

[hollytanaka]

Around 600 workers in Activision Publishing’s quality assurance department have formed a union. Assisted by the Communications Workers of America, the employees completed their vote with the results certified on Friday, March 8th. With that, Activision Quality Assurance United – CWA becomes the latest union to arise out of Microsoft’s gaming division and the largest video game union in the United States. In 2022, Microsoft affirmed a labor neutrality agreement with the CWA which eases the organization process at the company and its subsidiaries including Activision Blizzard. In an interview with The Verge, Tom Shelley, a technical requirements specialist and one of Activision Quality Assurance United’s organizers, said the labor neutrality agreement and Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard last year made their goals of unionizing easier to accomplish. “This has been an emergent effort that’s arisen in the last few weeks in response to the opportunities we’ve had to freely organize following the merger,” Shelley said. “As QA workers, we often have the weakest protections and lowest pay of any workers in the industry — even though our work is integral to the success of the companies we work for and the titles we make.” In quality assurance, workers test games looking for bugs and other issues, flagging them for other developers to fix. Since the majority of QA jobs are typically entry level, the industry has a reputation for devaluing these roles, emphasizing the need for labor protections. Shelley praised Microsoft for voluntarily recognizing the union and hopes it will inspire more organizing at the company and beyond. Last year, Microsoft voluntarily recognized a union of 300 QA workers at ZeniMax online. It joined the union at Blizzard Albany and Raven Software. Video game labor unions are picking up steam but have faced difficulties in light of the rampant layoffs. In 2023, the CWA filed an unfair labor complaint against Sega, claiming the company was planning to “phase out” temporary employees who were part of the company’s Aegis union that formed last year. When Sega eventually did lay off employees, Aegis said union negotiations were able to save a number of jobs.

[avboni]

The Impact of Overworking and Layoffs within the Video Game Industry

Website: Polygon: Gaming and Entertainment News, Reviews, and More

The piece is an informative piece

Below consists of various interviews as well as personal impact on the issue

Piece will be written informal, generalist/lay terms

In this article, I will be reviewing all of the negative impacts this had on the games industry, the video game community, and interviews from employees that were subject to these layoffs, as well as my own personal experiences as both a professional game developer and gamer.

In Late Summer of 2023, there were announcements after announcements on social media, namely Twitter/X that video game companies started to lay people off. While not unusual, the sudden surge and the amount of companies that were being affected by this grew each and every day. Major companies such as Sony and Microsoft were one of many that laid employees off during this purge.

Working in video games is both a wonderful and extremely difficult job to be a part of, especially depending on the department you work in. Some departments may deal directly with customers, stockholders, other workers, legal teams, or reporting on issues on games as they come in. You would think that any and all parts of creating a video game would all be as important as the other team, but unfortunately that is far from the case.

Here is what some professionals in the industry had to say about some of the issues about this as well as my own experiences. Below are from three different perspectives when it comes to creating games: Producer, QA tester, and Project Manager. 

What company do you work for?

Anon A

Cannot state due to NDA.

Brice Morgan

“I was not laid off, but I work as a QA tester on Starfield for Zenimax Media Inc, where I've been for the last two years.”

My Words

FerryGodMother Productions

Physical Health

Anon A

“I developed heart problems from it. I’ve had several nights where I’ve worked 16+ hours. I’ve been lucky enough to not have an all nighter though and get some amount of sleep. I’ve missed family events, time with friends, and overall felt insanely tired and my panic attacks were at an all time high.”

Brice Morgan

“Right before the official launch of Starfield, there were many days available for overtime on weekends or sometimes during the weekdays, but it was entirely optional. There are many folks who say that it is not actually optional and that you're expected/obligated to sign up for it, but I did not always do so and I never experience any consequences for it. When I did sign up, it would usually be for staying late during the weekday.”

My Words

“I would stay up until late hours of the night to get something finished on time. Some days I would be up until 3AM with one of my programmers just to figure out any issues that were going on. There would be days where I would be sitting at my desk for 10+ hours going through documents, meetings, and testing out products.”

Mental Health

Anon A

“I was personally affected by my lead producer leaving in order to save my job. I had to take over the lead role as an associate that had only been there for a little over a year. I had extreme anxiety and depression as I had no idea what my future was going to be. With so many others being let go as well, we were lil emotionally devastated.”

Brice Morgan

“There have been two fears of layoffs since I've begun working here, and the threat of it looms over everyone still, especially because we work in QA and that is usually the first on the chopping block – but I think having a union has saved my department from losing people. And my colleagues have had their friends hit with layoffs, which is greatly demoralizing and painful.”

My Words

“I have developed anxiety due to the stress of not being able to secure a job due to these layoffs as well as fear of the projects I’m working on being shelved, even if I worked on them for years.”

The Impact of Layoffs

Anon A

“We felt it pretty hard. We went from a company of 58 to 32 over the course of a couple of months. I was not laid off but I know several people who I worked with are still looking for new work, even after 6+ months.”

Brice Morgan

“The layoffs have been extremely stressful, despite the fact that they have not personally affected me or my colleagues.”

My Words

“The job market has become completely filled with competition and has made it harder to find something that offers entry level positions. I am lucky that I do not need to transfer soon, but unfortunately when my projects are finished, I have to find something as soon as I can. Companies know people are desperate and are going to start underpaying new employees by giving them positions lower than their actual skill set.”

Harassment from Consumers

Anon A

“We had a game we recently put out take a hit and eventually delisted since we did not have the resources to keep it up. Many players due to our decisions were extremely upset but I wouldn’t say they harassed us.”

Brice Morgan

“I was not personally harassed, nor do I know of any coworkers that were, but I've seen people online commenting to say that game developers should essentially "get over it," which is not directly harassment but it is insensitive and does nothing to help the problems currently plaguing the industry.”

My Words

“I have not personally been targeted by fans, but I have seen live tweets by people upset at game developers for and target community managers and game devs with death threats and doxxing. Some instances have been taken to court because of it.”

Delays, Rush Release dates, and DLCS.

Anon A

“It hurts the player base and gives the release a very rough start, keeping players from what could have been a great game… (not full quote due to length).”

“I do play video games outside of work. I don’t feel like I have been affected by it outside of my personal work experiences.”

Brice Morgan

“Usually delays are a good thing - Starfield was delayed for several months in order to polish the game more, which it very much needed at the time. I'm in support of delays if it means a better game in the long run. That said, I also think of Skull and Bones, which was in development for 11 years and delayed several times, and the game was not better for it, so very rarely, delays are not a good thing.”

My Word

“Ever since DLC’s and live services games became the norm, it has really taken a toll on the production and final product of video games.”

Should the Game Industry Unionize?

Anon A

“I think some parts of the game industry should unionize, especially the art side of production. With the oncoming of AI generated content, they need some way of protecting themselves and their livelihoods. Programmers could also with the rise of AI in game development programs. While I work for a smaller Indiedev company, we do not see an issue. Larger studios though can take advantage of their workers. QA definitely needs to unionize and fight for better contracts or fight for more permanent work instead of contract-based. QA is an overworked and underpaid area of game dev that needs more attention and praise.”

Brice Morgan

“Yes, the industry needs to unionize. The Zsnimax QA department I work at unionized in 2022, and as I said before, I'm certain the union saved our jobs after Starfield was released. I think this is especially true for the contractors who were originally going to be let go immediately when their contracts expired, but instead were able to get them renewed indefinitely. At the time of its foundation, our union was the largest in the industry at around 200, but now it is the union within Activision that is the largest at 600 members, and I think the efforts of our own union and the unfortunate lay offs due to the merge are what inspired Activision developers to unionize too. Unionize works!”

My Words

“Yes. The risk that people have of losing their jobs once a product is finished is a terrifying concept to have to deal with, especially if someone has been working for the company for years. Entry level positions and Senior positions are always hit the hardest as those are people that are expensive or they are so new, they are the usually the first to go along with QA.”

Sources: (cite properly APA)

(Anon A, personal communication March 16, 2024.)

(Brice Morgan, personal communication March 21, 2024.)

(Amanda Bonilla, personal communication March 21, 2024)

Chalk, A. (2022, August 29). Court ruling reveals more details about death threats against Destiny 2 developers. Pcgamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/court-ruling-reveals-more-details-about-death-threats-against-destiny-2-developers/

[iww-gnv]

Workers at Sega of America, representing multiple departments, have voted to form a union. With 91 employees voting yes out of a total number of 212 eligible employees, the Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA (also known as AEGIS-CWA) becomes the fifth video game union in the United States and its largest multi-department video game union. The AEGIS union drive was announced in April but was a year in coming for the workers at Sega of America’s Burbank and Irvine, California, offices. AEGIS-CWA is the US’s fifth video game union overall, joining groups at Raven Software, Blizzard Albany, ZeniMax, and VR / AR game developer Tender Claws. In addition to being among the first video game unions in the country, AEGIS-CWA will also represent workers across a multitude of departments including brand marketing, games as a service, localization, marketing services, product development operations, product development, sales, quality assurance teams, and more, making it the largest multi-discipline video game union in the United States.

[ejacutastic]

In a statement on Twitter, ZeniMax Workers United posted: “Today we, a majority of QA workers at ZeniMax, are proud to announce the launch of our union with [CODE-CWA]. We are the first group of workers at Microsoft to formally unionize. We are empowered to advocate for ourselves & build a future where we can thrive alongside the company.” [...]

If the vote passes, ZeniMax Workers United would become the largest video game union in the United States and Microsoft’s first.

[nullarysources]

Microsoft and ZeniMax union reach "first of its kind" agreement over usage of AI tools in gamedev

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell for Rock Paper Shotgun:

The videogame union ZeniMax Workers United have come to a "tentative", "first of its kind" agreement with ZeniMax parent company Microsoft over the company's usage of the latest "artificial intelligence" tools in the workplace. As part of the agreement, ZeniMax will "provide notice to the union in cases where AI implementation may impact the work of union members" and the union will be able to "bargain those impacts" where they feel it necessary.

…

"Coming to this agreement was a high priority for us," ZeniMax QA tester and ZWU member Dylan Burton comments in a ZWU press release. "It's hard to say how developments with AI may impact our work, but now we can be more confident that the agreement will help to protect us as we navigate the potential adoption of AI into our workflow.

Not terrible

[lutoogyan]

SEGA workers are forming a union

A group of 144 workers are forming a union at SEGA’s American headquarters in Irvine, California. SEGA follows in the footsteps of workers at other gaming companies like Microsoft-owned ZeniMax and Activision Blizzard, which both unionized last year. The gaming giant behind franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog and Total War, SEGA has not yet voluntarily recognized the union or responded to…

[rogersip]

Microsoft Game Testing Opportunities

Whether you're interested in helping out at a video game company, or just want to try out the latest games, Microsoft has some testing opportunities available to you. This includes getting a free copy of the upcoming Xbox One, and playing games that may be unavailable to the general public. The company also offers a chance to get a taste of its PC Game Pass service, which provides access to many new and classic PC games.

If you have the time, you can help out the Xbox team by giving them feedback on their upcoming games. The process is easy. You can sign up at the Microsoft Connect web site, where you can also take part in a beta testing program. Once you've signed up, you'll be sent a survey. All of the responses will be compiled and used to improve the games.

Microsoft's testing service is one of the most comprehensive in the industry. It helps game makers keep their projects on track, while making sure they're providing good accessibility practices. They include good practices for text displays and visual cues, as well as haptic feedback. However, this is only a fraction of what you can expect from the service.

As Microsoft continues to develop its Xbox platform, the company is taking steps to make the platform more accessible to gamers with disabilities. To that end, they've launched a test site called the Game Accessibility Program. The program is designed to give developers a hands-on look at the accessibility of their titles. It's been well-received.

Microsoft also threw its hat into the ring by developing its first-ever testing service for games. The service consists of a team of subject matter experts, which provide the company with a list of best practices to help improve their product. Among other things, the testing service includes the ability to receive feedback on your game within seven business days.

In addition to the testing service, Microsoft has introduced a new Windows 11 widget that will allow users to discover more about PC Game Pass games. This should make discovering new games a lot easier. Also, Microsoft is looking to release a massive firmware update for the Xbox 360 in March, which will allow it to bring backwards compatibility to the console.

The QA department at ZeniMax Media, a company that produces popular games such as the Fallout franchise, has been organizing a union. Their campaign reflects some of the workplace concerns that have plagued video game companies throughout the years.

ZeniMax QA testers have had a successful campaign, but the union has yet to be ratified by the National Labor Relations Board. Nevertheless, the unit is now vying for better pay. A majority of its workers have already voted in favor of joining the Communication Workers of America.

While you don't have to be a gamer to take part in the game testing, you should be able to write a quality test report and be able to predict what might go wrong. There are dozens of positions available, and you can even apply online. Depending on your availability and experience, you could be hired on a part-time or full-time basis.