Xbox boss Phil Spencer confirmed Xbox would acknowledge Raven Software Union once Microsoft completed its purchase of Activision Blizzard. This is the first time that Xbox has explicitly said that it will recognize Raven Software’s recently won union, although according to Axios, the company has said before it would have no problem with Activision Blizzard recognizing the union. The company had previously announced it would ” not interfere with the union, although today marks the first time that Microsoft executives formally announced support for unionization.
While it is important to note Microsoft does not currently have any relations with either Raven Software or Raven Software’s recently formed union, Telling really marks the first time that a senior Microsoft executive has publicly stated Microsoft will recognize a union of gaming workers. Microsoft Game Studios Chief Executive Officer Phil Spencer, during an all-hands internal meeting with employees from the Xbox Game Studios, said he will recognize a union formed by quality assurance testers from Raven Software, once the Activision Blizzard’s purchase is completed.
Xbox chief Phil Spencer has clarified that Xbox does not currently have a relationship with either the union or the Communications Workers of America, which helped to create Raven’s guilds. According to a February FAQ, The Game Workers Alliance has no plans to represent all of Raven SoftwareWhose employees and claims the opposite was made by Activision Blizzard as part of an attempt at union-busting at Activision Blizzard. Meanwhile, although Activision Blizzard has shared some kind of implicit support of unionizing Raven Software publicly, its actions tell a different story, INCLUDING anti-union messages on its company’s Slack channel and making quality assurance testers work full-time. Ravens QA testers earlier this week voted to join the union, becoming the first organized workers within a triple-A game studio in North America to do so.
Unionization across the video games industry continues to be a hot topic, with growing discussions surrounding workers’ rights. The subject of tech sector unionization is not new or without controversy, and it seems that is going double for games development. It is the first union for a major North American video game studio, and one of the region’s few gaming unions in general, following last year’s formation of the Video Games Union. This has the potential to influence similar labor organizing efforts happening across the U.S. video games industry. This has added momentum which has fuelled others within the industry to form their own labor organizing efforts.
