One of my biggest pushbacks to those who were proponents of the ATVI acquisition was this notion that it would lead to mass unionization of the employee base. I’ve made staunch arguments that high-salary technical professionals who have huge bargaining power on the human capital market are not interested in unionization. When we dilute our earning potential with mid- and low- performers in high-salary labor categories, our maximum lifetime earning potential is actually blunted. We will earn less over time, impacting how much we can put away for retirement, what schools we can send our kids to, how well we can take care of aging parents. While collective bargaining will work to bring others up, there is a band of employees who it will definitely hurt in the pocket. While overall job security MAY be improved, the risk-reward calculus often makes us lean towards risk and the likelihood that “we will be ok”.
That being said, there is definitely a movement afoot that is gaining momentum at Xbox. One that cannot be ignored. One that has seen some 2400+ employees out of the Microsoft Gaming Division unionize since the ATVI acquisition closed. Near as I have been able to count, these numbers include:
- 600 from Activision QA
- 500 from the WoW Team
- 241 at Bethesda
- 461 from Zenimax OnLine
- ~160 from Blizzard SFD (Story and Franchise Development)
- ~450 Blizzard Diablo Team
The Blizzard numbers include the most recent unionization of about 450 workers from the Diablo Team as recently reported by Rock, Paper, Shotgun. This puts the total number of unionized employee within the gaming division at about 10%.
Now, before we run off to the hills to say I was wrong (which I wasn’t), let’s put on the table a few things worthy of considering.
- It’s interesting that all of the unionizations have been at studios that XBox has acquired as part of the 2017-run-up of acquisitions; no reports of unionization at The Coalition, Turn 10, 343i (now Halo Studios), Rare, Mojang…at least not any of major note
- While it is true that these numbers are nothing to scoff at, more employees have been laid off from the Microsoft Gaming Division than have unionized. As much as possibly twice as many. Granted, that may put the unionization percentage at closer to 13 – 15%
- How much of this is caused by Microsoft’s own behavior in the rampant layoffs and the lessening assurance of job security, rather than the way you’d think being part of a large organization with a large capital base and, if you believer the ad copy, the way in which Game Pass was supposed to protect employees?
I will note that, while it is true that when unionization does happen in tech, it is typically in your lower-salaried labor categories (artists, writers, QA, editorial, etc), some of these unionizations appear to moving across the line and incorporating some of your more highly paid hands-on-keyboard staff.
At the end of the of day, it’s a good thing that this is happening. The unionization; not the mass layoffs. It is bad that the former is happening more widely as a direct consequence of the latter. It would be preferred if that was not needed as a catalyst. It will be interesting to see if the trend continues if the threat of layoffs abates. I would also say it is not necessarily indicative of a mass industry trend. It is happening most prevalently at Microsoft. Not PlayStation, Nintendo, EA, 2K, Ubisoft, Capcom…there have been some smatterings, but nothing nearly so centralized in one employee base. Is that because Microsoft is benevolent and allows it? Or is it because things are so bad, so uncertain, at XBox? And how many of the employees who were caught up in the mass layoffs were parts of the pools that had been unionized? How much of a chilling effect has been placed on the movement?
Definitely more to wait and see here on how this will turn out. But hopefully there is at least some good coming out of it.
Rounding Off Infinity 