Blizzard Entertainment Workers Ratify First Contracts After Two Years of Negotiations

Blizzard Entertainment workers represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) voted to ratify historic union contracts with the Microsoft-owned company, securing an unprecedented victory for the video game industry following the Labor Day holiday and just days ahead of BlizzCon, Blizzard Entertainment’s flagship gaming convention in Anaheim, Calif.

Blizzard Entertainment has been one of the prime movers in gaming and helped shape the gaming industry for decades. Their creations include World of Warcraft and Diablo, among many others. They finally managed to unionize in 2022. Now, they’ve ratified their first union contracts after two full years of negotiations.

The contracts, ratified on Tuesday night, cover roughly 1,900 workers who work at Blizzard’s games and shared services divisions, including those assigned to the titles World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Warcraft Rumble, Overwatch and Diablo. The contract covers not only the developers themselves, but include AI-use regulations, and also protects those working in related areas such as the quality assurance, platform and technology and story and franchise development teams.

Earlier this year, members of CWA Locals 1118 and 6215 ratified a separate three-year contract covering more than 60 quality assurance staff, with terms including wage increases, AI-use regulations, crediting protections, and limits on mandatory overtime.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) represented the Blizzard Entertainment workers in the bargaining process. Deals included language covering wage increases, grievance procedures and “just cause” disciplinary protections.

The deals also enshrine a three-day in-office work week, offer those who have been laid off the option to be “recalled” to an open role within a period of 14 months after their exit announcement and include an additional four weeks of severance. The deals additionally necessitate bargaining over the use of AI in the workplace.

In July, Microsoft — which also owns Blizzard Entertainment — said that it would cut 3,200 roles at Xbox in a major restructure of the brand. That news motivated workers to make layoffs a key issue during negotiations, according to the CWA.

Quality analyst Simon Hedrick, a bargaining committee member, called his workplace contract “the beginning of a new era at Blizzard Entertainment” in a statement. Hedrick added, “I look forward to the day that everyone in the industry can enjoy the protections that this contract affords us, like increased severance and recall rights in the event of a layoff and the ability to grieve injustices in the workplace.”