The team developing a video game based on Magic: The Gathering announced on Tuesday that they’ve unionized, describing the move as part of an attempt to improve working conditions at Renton, Wash.-based Wizards of the Coast and create better games.
United Wizards of the Coast, operating in partnership with the Communications Workers of America, specifically represents the team working on Magic: The Gathering – Arena, an online adaptation of the long-running collectible card game. UWOTC-CWA says it represents “the collective labor of over a hundred game designers, programmers, producers, artists, QA, and more.”
“We believe that, through our collective power, we can bring about better working conditions for ourselves and the industry at large,” the union wrote on its website. “United Wizards of the Coast is just one of an ever-increasing number of union efforts in the gaming world. We are not the first to fight for our rights, and we will not be the last.”
UWOTC-CWA’s stated goals include addressing “unfair decisions” by Wizards, which allegedly include forced return-to-office mandates, severe pay discrepancy, “crunch” (a games-industry term for significant mandatory overtime), and more.
According to Kotaku, the UWOTC-CWA’s efforts to unionize were initially spurred by the surprise layoffs that were implemented at Wizards December 2023.
“This has been years in the making, but things really took off in the last year or so,” says Rogue Kessler, Digital Product Manager at Wizards of the Coast, in an email to GeekWire. “The threat of unpredictable layoffs, combined with the RTO mandate that’s been rolled out over the last year, has driven a lot of us into union conversations.”
The union also plans to address initiatives by Wizards that required workers to use AI tools.
“There’s been a strong push from management to adopt AI tools in our work, but there aren’t any strong guidelines in place that put guardrails around how AI will get used in the workplace,” Kessler says. “With a union and then eventually a union contract, we are working toward ensuring that AI gets used effectively and responsibly across all of our teams and projects.”
Kessler continues, “Workers should have a say in what AI tools are used for, and there should be reasonable limits on how those tools are allowed to be used.”
GeekWire has contacted Wizards of the Coast for further comment.
Update, April 29: “We have received the filing and are reviewing it carefully. Our employees are the lifeblood of what makes us great, and we are committed to fostering a workplace where every person feels heard, valued, and supported,” a Wizards of the Coast representative said via email.
“We believe we have a strong connection with everyone at Wizards of the Coast and that direct relationship with our employees is essential to how we work together to capture the imagination of our fans and players, inspiring a lifetime love of our games. We appreciate hearing about the needs and interests of our employees through this filing, and will respond through the appropriate process.”
The organization’s next step is to request that Wizards of the Coast and its parent company Hasbro voluntarily recognize the union, and requests that Magic fans sign its official petition. The deadline on the petition is May 1, International Workers’ Day.
Arena is a free-to-play digital version of Magic for Windows, MacOS, and mobile devices, which saw full release September 2019. It’s operated on a “freemium” model where players can play the game at no up-front cost, but have the option to acquire new virtual cards and in-game currency in exchange for real money.
According to official announcements from Hasbro, there were over 13 million registered accounts on Arena as of 2023. At time of writing, independent trackers such as SteamCharts have logged around 7,700 daily players on Arena for the last 30 days, which is both a respectable number for a modern live-service game and a significant year-over-year improvement.
This story has been updated since publication with statements from Wizards of the Coast and UWOTC-CWA member Rogue Kessler.
