Solidarity Never Changes

July 20, 2024 2:48 AM

In a surprising move, the staff of Bethesda Game Studios - creators of the first person based Fallout games, Starfield, and The Elder Scrolls - have moved to collectively unionize under the Communication Workers of America (CWA). (SLIGN)

This is a full "wall-to-wall" unionization of the studio covering not just developers but also artists, designers, and other technical staff, and comes after successful drives at Bethesda Montreal and the ZeniMax (Bethesda's direct corporate parent) QA staff. Microsoft has chosen to accept the card check after 241 Bethesda staff signed one.

posted by NoxAeternum (18 comments total)

In other news, game studio's will be closing shortly.

Starfield being a failure will be blamed. Not the leadership mind you. NEVER the leadership.
posted by Comstar at 3:34 AM on July 20 [3 favorites]

In other news, game studio's will be closing shortly.

Bethesda is too high profile to close, especially with the FTC breathing down their necks and reminding the courts why their ruling letting MS and ABK merge was stupid and ignorant (see: their recent letter to the courts detailing MS dropping day and date from the lower tiers of Game Pass just in time for the new Call of Duty release.)
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:44 AM on July 20 [7 favorites]

As a member of CWA Local 3265 - United Campus Workers of Georgia, welcome to the folks from Bethesda! Solidarity forever!
posted by hydropsyche at 4:24 AM on July 20 [25 favorites]

I don’t fucking believe it. I have rarely been so happy to have been proven wrong! And so quickly! One of my friends / former co-workers is there - if you played Starfield, and thought that while the Constellation character writing was crap maybe a few of the side quests were extremely well done …near as I can tell every single one of those was his. Been nothing but an avalanche of well-deserved congrats on his social media since this went live. QA unionizes - the suits treat them like dogshit and everyone expects that to happen occasionally. But the rest of us? Mind blown. Bethesda was primed for it after the rough acquisition, but still.

Here’s hoping this turns into a thing. Only concern is - I just pulled my best all-nighter in weeks (it’s 8AM and I’m headed to bed). Made something I was truly proud of these past 14 hours and is a fucking blast to play. I just don’t want to lose the ability to pull this kind of stunt whenever the spirit moves me. Like, don’t cut back my hours: just fucking pay me for them already.
posted by Ryvar at 5:09 AM on July 20 [14 favorites]

This just in: Bethesda has been bought by Someone Else, stripped for its brand names, and dissolved.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 5:30 AM on July 20 [1 favorite]

Good for them! MS did promise not to interfere in unionization efforts when bending over backwards to get approval to buy Bethesda. We shall see if they keep their word.
posted by tehgubner at 5:53 AM on July 20 [7 favorites]

Only concern is...don’t cut back my hours: just fucking pay me for them already
overtime's mentioned in a stackexchange thread:
"I once worked for a company that had rules like "any time over 8 hours in one day was overtime" - even if you worked less than 40 per week. It wasn't legally required in our state, and there was no Union for us, but the company applied Union agreements made in other states to us anyway."
posted by HearHere at 6:41 AM on July 20 [2 favorites]

hell yeah. i hope this inspires others to unionize their shops. game dev is a grind, makes billions for the owners but pays poorly for all but a few and this needs to change
posted by dis_integration at 6:43 AM on July 20 [7 favorites]

A friend of mine is (if I recall correctly) in-house counsel for Microsoft/Bethesda working specifically with the HR department. I have to imagine this is going to be their entire life for a moment here.

But no matter, HOORAY UNIONIZING!
posted by Navelgazer at 7:34 AM on July 20 [4 favorites]

Something something something- unions are a dirty Commie plot - something something

Good on them for getting it done. The gaming industry is brutal.
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:27 AM on July 20 [2 favorites]

Something something something- unions are a dirty Commie plot - something something


Ha, I just pictured somewhere in a Microsoft C-suite there's an exec trying to activate Liberty Prime.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 8:46 AM on July 20 [3 favorites]

Yay! Not something I ever expected to see.
posted by Mitheral at 10:12 AM on July 20 [2 favorites]

this is great and the “this just in” and “in other news” posts in this thread are believable enough that I pause-panicked for a split second at each one before i realized they are not actually true or happening (uhhh for now at least)
posted by crime online at 10:25 AM on July 20 [2 favorites]

Bethesda is too high profile to close, especially with the FTC breathing down their necks

Todd Howard suddenly concerned about Biden's age, considers supporting Trump for purely Biden is old related reasons.
posted by Reyturner at 11:08 AM on July 20

helll yeeeeahhh
posted by egypturnash at 2:51 PM on July 20 [5 favorites]

I’m not naive enough to think that this fight is over, but I will say the attitude of “here is why this victory is a defeat, actually” is why we can’t have nice things.

Congrats to the new CWA members, well done in bringing in everyone, and may this point to continued unionization in the industry.
posted by sgranade at 3:39 PM on July 20 [7 favorites]

Woohoo woohoo!
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 6:29 PM on July 22

And following in their new sibling's footsteps, studio/dumpster fire Blizzard Entertainment also moves to unionize wall-to-wall.
posted by NoxAeternum at 1:24 PM on July 24