In case you missed the news, the "World of Warcraft" development team formed a labor union late last month, joining the nearly 500-member Communication Workers of America (CWA).

It was in some ways a landmark conclusion to a vicious three-year saga that began with dire reports of harassment, sexual misconduct, and abuse at Activision Blizzard, and ended with several employees leaving in 2021.

In 2022, Activision Blizzard settled an $18 million sexual harassment lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A year later, it settled a separate California civil rights lawsuit for $54 million, with an additional $47 million earmarked for employee relief.

Prior to the settlement, former CEO Bobby Kotick described the employee complaints as "a very aggressive labor movement that is trying very hard to destabilize the company. What I detest is unions that don't play by the rules."[7 After Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, Kotick stepped down.

According to a new interview conducted by The Gamer with WoW senior producer Samuel Cooper, the change in atmosphere after the acquisition made the union's efforts pay off. Microsoft's more positive attitude toward unions made Cooper and his colleagues feel comfortable forming a union: "By law, the company can't retaliate against you for forming a union. But that doesn't make it any less scary: ...... When you see hundreds of your colleagues standing shoulder to shoulder with you, you become less afraid. And neutrality has allowed us to be very visible on campus."

Cooper also reaffirmed his earlier statement, reported by IGN, that the wave of withdrawals in 2021 helped plant the seeds for the current union to grow: "There was this series of walkouts ...... The way it came together so quickly, without any prior groundwork, was really a proof of concept. We knew we could do it. We knew that together we could make a big difference and that we shared a lot of the same values to rally around"

. [After refusing to recognize Raven Software's QA union in 2022, the National Labor Relations Board later found that a series of pay raises were withheld from the team in retaliation for their attempt to unionize.

Going back a bit further, the 2021 statement drew ire from workers and the Digital Employee Organizing Campaign (via the CWA), and calls such as "please take time to consider the consequences of signing binding legal documents presented by the CWA," were, in the words of the CWA, "union . is tired anti-union talking points straight out of the union-busting script."

This strained relationship between the CWA and Blizzard's owners is less of an issue now that Blizzard is under the Microsoft umbrella, but according to Cooper, "Representatives from the CWA and other video game unions like Sega and ZeniMax come to campus, They're talking to everybody."

That is not to say that the transition to Microsoft was painless for Blizzard employees or for anyone else. Similarly, Microsoft would later close four studios, including Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, a move that, considering the true popularity of Hi-Fi Rush, caused an existential wave of fear among the industry.

This is all against the backdrop of Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of the shiny new company, but in the context of historic layoffs throughout the industry. As is usually the case with such things, it is a complicated mess. But hopefully, Blizzard's newly formed union will effectively protect those left behind from a similar fate.