A small group of quality assurance workers at an Activision Blizzard-owned game studio have unionized, marking the arrival of the first labor union at a major U.S. gaming company.
The workers at Raven Software, which is a Wisconsin subsidiary of Activision, voted to form the union Game Workers Alliance with the Communications Workers of America. Nineteen workers voted in favor of the union, with three voting against, the National Labor Relations Board tallied Monday. Two additional challenged ballots were uncounted, but do not change the outcome.
The union victory at the video game giant could serve as a foothold for other workers in the gaming industry looking to organize. Workers have increasingly criticized practices in the industry, including temporary contracts with little job security and grueling working conditions during weeks-long pushes to meet game deadlines. North America saw its first video game union form at the end of 2021 at Vodeo Games, an indie studio with about a dozen employees.
