Unionized quality assurance testers at video game holding company ZeniMax announced Friday that they have reached a tentative contract agreement with Microsoft, which acquired ZeniMax in 2021. This represents Microsoft’s first union contract in the U

CWA negotiates new contract for ZeniMax including "substantial" wage increases and a credits policy for QA staff "This agreement shows what's possible when workers stand together and refuse the status quo." Image credit: Microsoft News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on May 31, 2025 The Communications Workers of America (CWA) says it has reached a "historic tentative contract agreement" with ZeniMax Media staff at Microsoft. In a statement, the union calls the deal a "first for the video game industry", and revealed it had been negotiating for a first contract for "nearly two years". "QA workers from across the country continue to lead the charge for industry-wide change," said Page Branson, Senior II QA Tester and ZeniMax Workers United-CWA bargaining committee member. "Going toe-to-toe with one of the largest corporations in the world isn’t a small feat. This is a monumental victory for all current video game workers and for those that come after." Xbox currently has more first-party games coming to PlayStation 5 this year than Sony.Watch on YouTube The new contract is said to set "new standards for the industry" and includes "substantial across-the-board wage increases as well as new minimum salaries for workers". It also includes protections against arbitrary dismissal, grievance procedures, and a crediting policy that "clearly acknowledges the QA workers' contributions to the video games they help create", as well as a previously announced agreement on how artificial intelligence is introduced and implemented in the workplace. "Workers in the video game industry are demonstrating once again that collective power works. This agreement shows what's possible when workers stand together and refuse to accept the status quo," added CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. "Whether it's having a say about the use of AI in the workplace, fighting for significant wage increases and fair crediting policies, or protecting workers from retaliation, our members have raised the bar. We're proud to support them every step of the way." BREAKING: We have reached a historic first tentative contract agreement with Microsoft! cwa-union.org/news/release...[image or embed]— CWA (@cwaunion.bsky.social) May 30, 2025 at 5:04 PM To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Members can expect contract explanation meetings over the next few weeks, and a ratification vote is expected by 20th June. As game development becomes increasingly insecure all over the world, more and more developers and performers are organising collective bargaining. Following news of the SAG-AFTRA strike last year, Equity stated it stood "in solidarity", but would not be authorising a strike. It did, however, recently call on the games industry to improve conditions for performers, and a protest took place outside BAFTA Games Awards as Equity members held placards reading "Union contracts in gaming now". Last month, the US union warned of "alarming loopholes" for "AI abuse" in the latest proposal to end industrial action, while earlier this month, almost 200 Overwatch developers working at Activision Blizzard joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union after the "overwhelming majority" of workers signed up.

In Brief Posted: 7:03 AM PDT · June 1, 2025 Image Credits:Aleksander Kalka/NurPhoto / Getty Images Video game union announces first contract with Microsoft Unionized quality assurance testers at video game holding company ZeniMax announced Friday that they have reached a tentative contract agreement with Microsoft, which acquired ZeniMax in 2021. This represents Microsoft’s first union contract in the United States. It’s been a little over two years since approximately 300 QA testers announced that they were unionizing through the Communications Workers of America, and they said they’ve been negotiating with Microsoft ever since. Bloomberg reports that the contract terms include an across-the-board, 13.5% pay raise on July 1. The contract also incorporates an already-announced agreement around the use of AI. Union members are scheduled to vote on ratifying the contract on June 20. In a statement, QA tester and union bargaining committee member Page Branson called this “a monumental victory for all current video game workers and for those that come after.” While ZeniMax’s QA workers were the first to unionize at Microsoft, other teams have followed suit, and the CWA said it now counts more than 2,000 Microsoft video game workers as members. Topics

The Communications Workers of America, the union representing QA testers at ZeniMax, announced today that it has reached a tentative agreement on a labor contract with Microsoft. If implemented, this contract will be one of the first to go into effect at one of the big AAA game publishers.Last month, the union voted to authorize a strike in response to challenges to the contract negotiation process; this agreement would avoid a strike from being carried out. In a press release, CWA shared that the agreed contract would grant ZeniMax employees significantly increased protections and would raise pay across the board. It would also implement guidelines on the use of AI, restrict "arbitrary dismissal," and create processes to ensure that QA testers adequately receive credit in video games that they contribute to.QA testing has been a hotspot of unionization efforts in the games industry, some of which have been targeted with union-busting efforts. At ZeniMax, the QA testers' union represents around 300 employees and has been fighting for several years for this contract. In response to the agreement, Jessee Leese, a QA tester and union representative at ZeniMax, stated, "Video games have been the revenue titan of the entire entertainment industry for years, and the workers who develop these games are too often exploited for their passion and creativity. Organizing unions, bargaining for a contract, and speaking with one collective voice has allowed workers to take back the autonomy we all deserve."Continue Reading at GameSpot

ZeniMax Workers United just became the biggest game developer union in the country yet to win a contract at a major publisher. The group of over 300 quality assurance testers across franchises like Fallout and Doom secured an agreement with Microsoft that includes wage increases, salary minimums, and crediting procedures. Suggested ReadingWhy People Are Rushing To Sell Their Xbox Series X To GameStop Right Now Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingWhy People Are Rushing To Sell Their Xbox Series X To GameStop Right Now Share SubtitlesOffEnglishWhy People Are Rushing To Sell Their Xbox Series X To GameStop Right Now “Video games have been the revenue titan of the entire entertainment industry for years, and the workers who develop these games are too often exploited for their passion and creativity. Organizing unions, bargaining for a contract, and speaking with one collective voice has allowed workers to take back the autonomy we all deserve,” ZeniMax QA tester and bargaining committee member Jessee Leese said in a press release. “Our first contract is an invitation for video game professionals everywhere to take action. We’re the ones who make these games, and we’ll be the ones to set new standards for fair treatment.”The contract will now go to the full membership for review with a ratification vote planned for June 20. Once completed, ZeniMax devs, including staff at Bethesda Game Studios, will have won the biggest collective bargaining agreement yet of any of the major gaming unions that have formed in recent years. Sega of America staff secured their first union contract last year, while developers at other Microsoft-owned studios, including the Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft teams at Blizzard, as well as Call of Duty testers at Raven Software, continue bargaining. The ZeniMax contract comes just two months after union employees there threatened to go on strike if an agreement wasn’t reached following a nearly two-year-long negotiation process. The Communications Workers of America, which represents ZeniMax Workers United and other Microsoft gaming unions, previously filed an unfair labor practice charge against the tech giant claiming it was slow-walking the talks. The new contract, once ratified, will provide important benchmarks for other teams currently hashing out agreements. Correction 5/30/2025 6:56 p.m. ET: Sega of America workers were the first union at a major gaming company to secure a contract. .

After two years of negotiating, ZeniMax Workers United-CWA, the union representing quality assurance workers at ZeniMax Media, has reached a tentative union contract with Microsoft, according to the Communication Workers of America. The union originally formed in 2023 and was immediately recognized by Microsoft, which made its commitment to stay neutral towards union organizing at ZeniMax official in 2024. The new contract will cover over 300 ZeniMax employees and includes "substantial across-the-board wage increases as well as new minimum salaries for workers," the CWA says. The contract also includes language protecting workers from the impacts of AI and "a crediting policy that clearly acknowledges the QA workers’ contributions to the video games they help create." "Video games have been the revenue titan of the entire entertainment industry for years, and the workers who develop these games are too often exploited for their passion and creativity," Jessee Leese, a QA tester and ZeniMax Workers United-CWA bargaining committee member shared in the CWA announcement. "Our first contract is an invitation for video game professionals everywhere to take action. We're the ones who make these games, and we'll be the ones to set new standards for fair treatment." The new contract is considered "tentative" until union members ratify it, but because existing contracts often act as a reference in ongoing negotiations, the agreements ZeniMax workers secured will likely serve as a standard for other unions going forward. ZeniMax QA testers aren't the only video game union at Microsoft — QA workers at Raven Software, QA workers at Activision, workers at ZeniMax Online Studios and the development team behind Overwatch are all still in active negotiations with the company. Outside of Microsoft, the CWA also announced the United Game Workers-CWA union at this year's GDC, as a another option for representation. United Game Workers-CWA is a direct-join union, a labor organization that all workers in an industry can participate in without needing legal recognition from an employer. The idea is that currently employed workers, anyone who's been laid off and freelancers can all still wield power together, even without a potential contract hanging in the balance.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/zenimax-qa-workers-win-tentative-union-contract-with-microsoft-194204789.html?src=rss

Bryant Francis, Senior EditorMay 30, 20253 Min ReadImage via ZeniMax Workers United-CEWA.At a GlanceZeniMax Workers Untied-CWA has signed a tentative contract agreement with Microsoft after two years of negotiating.Unionized QA workers at ZeniMax celebrated a huge win today with the news that their union, ZeniMax Workers United-CWA, and ZeniMax parent company Microsoft finally reached a tentative contract agreement two years after unionizing in 2023.The new contract includes "substantial" across-the-board wage increases and new minimum salaries for employees and policies for introducing AI tools in the workplace (policies first agreed upon in late 2023).It also includes protections against arbitrary dismissal, grievance procedures, and a robust crediting policy to ensure QA workers are recognized for their work on ZeniMax games. The CWA declared that the agreement "sets new standards" for the video game industry."Video games have been the revenue titan of the entire entertainment industry for years, and the workers who develop these games are too often exploited for their passion and creativity," said ZeniMax QA tester Jessee Leese, who is a member of the bargaining committee. "Our first contract is an invitation for video game professionals everywhere to take action."The agreement follows a brief public spat between the two parties from November 2024 through April 2025. The union has spoken out against Microsoft's decision to outsource more work to outside contractors and accused it of "hindering" contract negotiations, briefly going on strike last year and voting to authorize a second strike this spring. Microsoft denied the accusation, saying made "fair" proposals to the bargaining committee (Raven Software union members made similar claims about Microsoft in August 2024).Related:That the two groups could go from public verbal sparring to a successful bargaining agreement in under two months shows that some form of progress came after workers threatened that second strike.Unions possess negotiation tools that individuals don'tAdapting the union's contract and tactics is a potentially powerful way to In 2024 ZeniMax union leaders Autumn Mitchell and Chris Lusco broke down the benefits of the unionization process in a conversation on the Game Developer Podcast, explaining that choosing to unionize has created new bargaining opportunities that individual employees don't possess.For instance, the pair discussed the concept of "recall rights," a term the included in the bargaining agreement that requires employers to offer laid-off employees a chance to return to the company if they reopen their positions within 2-3 years after being laid off. Unionizing workers in the United States also benefit what's known as a "status quo" condition for workers' contracts that are immediately imposed when a union is declared, preventing their employer from suddenly shrinking benefits.Related:"We're talking about eliminating that 'revolving door' at least to some degree," Mitchell said at the time, in reference to how high turnover can gut a studio's institutional knowledge.Their tactics will certainly be useful to other unions negotiating bargaining agreements with Microsoft. At neighboring subsidiary Activision Blizzard, the developers working on the Warcraft and Overwatch series are waging their own (verbal) battle with the company, as are the employees at Raven Software and workers across Activision Blizzard's QA teams.Read more about:Top StoriesUnionizationXboxAbout the AuthorBryant FrancisSenior Editor, GameDeveloper.comBryant Francis is a writer, journalist, and narrative designer based in Boston, MA. He currently writes for Game Developer, a leading B2B publication for the video game industry. His credits include Proxy Studios' upcoming 4X strategy game Zephon and Amplitude Studio's 2017 game Endless Space 2.Follow Bryant Francis, Senior Editor, on Bluesky or LinkedIn.See more from Bryant FrancisDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

The US has ordered companies that make software used to design semiconductors to stop selling to China without first obtaining export licenses. The restrictions go beyond software alone, covering chemicals for semiconductors, butane and ethane, machine tools, and aviation equipment, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the development. “On May 23, the US Government informed the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry about new export controls on EDA software to China and Chinese military end users globally,” said a Siemens EDA spokesperson. “Siemens has supported customers in China for more than 150 years and will continue to work with our customers globally to mitigate the impact of these new restrictions while operating in compliance with applicable national export control regimes. The company continues to support our employees and customers around the world who are using our technology to transform the everyday.” This represents the latest chapter in a tech war that began with restrictions on selling actual semiconductors to China. Now, the US is targeting the tools needed to design those chips — a potentially more damaging approach. Strategic shift to upstream controls Electronic design automation software makers — including industry leaders Cadence, Synopsys, and Siemens EDA — were sent notifications by the Commerce Department last Friday to cease supplying their technology to Chinese customers, the report said. The department will review license requests on a case-by-case basis, it added. The financial implications are substantial. Synopsys and Cadence earn annual revenue of about 16% and 12% from their China business. “With Cadence and Synopsys being US-based companies and Siemens contributing to more than 90% share of the EDA tools globally, this move further tightens EDA software sales in China,” said Neil Shah, VP for research and partner at Counterpoint Research. “EDA tools cannot be substituted and are the foundation to chip design and manufacturing.” What makes this strategically different is its upstream focus. Manish Rawat, semiconductor analyst at TechInsights, explained that, unlike previous hardware restrictions, “the new focus on EDA software targets the critical tools essential for designing advanced chips (5nm and below). This upstream control aims to block innovation before chips are manufactured, making it a more preemptive and disruptive tactic.” Why now? The timing reflects broader strategic recalibration. Rawat noted that “the US has shifted its strategy, now seeing China’s push for tech self-sufficiency — especially in AI and semiconductors — as a growing national security threat.” Since the 2020 CHIPS Act, coordinated export controls with allies like Japan and the Netherlands have strengthened US resolve. Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO at Greyhound Research, observed that targeting design-phase technologies “seeks to constrain the conceptual stage of advanced chip development — not merely production.” The timing may also serve as “a strategic bargaining tool amid paused tariffs and ongoing diplomacy,” Rawat suggested, signaling US willingness to escalate tech restrictions to strengthen its negotiating position. The EDA software packages from companies like Synopsys and Cadence are central to modeling, simulation, and verification of complex semiconductor architectures. “The software lifecycle of these tools is super important with updates, patches, and support to be at the forefront of leading edge, which will stop with the restrictions on licensing,” Shah pointed out. This ongoing dependency means even alternative tools would struggle to keep pace with rapidly evolving chip design requirements without continuous vendor support. China’s long road to independence For China, developing viable alternatives presents enormous challenges. While Chinese companies like Empyrean, Primarius, and Entasys have emerged as domestic providers, they remain far behind. “Developing advanced EDA software on par with Synopsys or Cadence is highly complex, requiring decades of R&D,” Rawat explained. “Fully closing the gap — especially for cutting-edge sub-7nm chip design — could take 5 to 10 years or more.” Gogia added that “while notable progress has been made in selected areas of analog and layout tooling, full-stack integration across simulation, IP compatibility, and foundry certification continues to lag.” The gap is widening. Shah noted that Cadence recently announced M2000 Supercomputers, integrating advanced AI into EDA workflows. “This widens the gap between what China can build with an indigenous toolchain, as these US companies are miles ahead.” However, China may have breathing room. “China has been relegated to access to advanced process nodes, so in the near to mid-term, they might not need an advanced toolchain as they won’t be able to design or manufacture advanced chips,” Shah observed. Beijing’s likely response China’s response will likely be multifaceted. “Beijing is likely to accelerate funding through increased subsidies and incentives for domestic EDA startups,” Rawat said. “It will also aggressively recruit global experts and repatriate Chinese talent with semiconductor software expertise.” Beyond domestic development, “China may build alternative chip design ecosystems less reliant on US intellectual property, though these will initially lag in sophistication,” Rawat added. Diplomatic measures may include reciprocal restrictions on US firms or supply chains involving Chinese technology. Toward a bifurcated design world The restrictions are accelerating what analysts see as an inevitable split. Gogia described emerging “parallel EDA stacks” where “global design ecosystems may begin to diverge, with export controls catalyzing separate compliance frameworks and IP governance models.” “This is accelerating a split into two spheres: a US-led system using Western tools and IP protections, and a China-led system focused on domestic tools and foundries,” Rawat added. This separation isn’t just technical — it’s institutional. “Engineering workflows, legal oversight, cloud infrastructure, and partner ecosystems are all being restructured to manage compliance in a fractured regulatory environment,” Gogia said. Global industry implications For multinational companies, this fragmentation creates significant challenges. “Multinational firms may need to adopt dual design workflows and navigate stricter compliance, affecting partnerships and operational efficiency,” Rawat said. Organizations face maintaining duplicate systems and complex compliance across jurisdictions. Smaller firms may find duplication costs force market exits or a narrowed geographic focus. To mitigate risks, companies “are likely to diversify supply chains and expand in neutral regions like India, Vietnam, and Singapore, emerging as new semiconductor design hubs,” Rawat pointed out. The EDA software restrictions represent the latest evolution in US-China tech competition, moving from end-product controls to fundamental design capabilities. “US continues to find stranglehold on China with critical software and hardware to cut off access to critical and advanced tools,” Shah said. For enterprise technology leaders, this signals an era where geopolitical considerations increasingly shape technology architecture decisions, requiring strategic planning for an increasingly fragmented world. Cadence and Synopsys did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.

We should have known it was too good to last. After markets enjoyed a month of relative peace in Donald Trump’s trade war with the world—a stretch of time during which Trump paused his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries and then rolled back his massive 145% tariffs on China—the president reignited the conflict Friday morning with a couple of posts on TruthSocial. First, he directly threatened Apple with a company-specific 25% tariff on all iPhones if it shifts production to India from China, rather than to the U.S. Then, he attacked the European Union for being “very difficult to deal with,” and said he wanted to impose a 50% tariff on all U.S. imports from the EU on June 1. The threats—which he may not have the legal authority to follow through on—rattled markets severely at first, with S&P futures dropping more than 2%. Stocks recovered somewhat after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to cool investor anxieties in an appearance on Fox, and European officials said they were continuing to negotiate. But the turmoil engendered by Trump’s posts was a reminder of the fact that U.S. trade policy is now being made, in effect, by presidential whim, making the future profits of many American companies dependent on how Trump happens to feel on any given day. When the president first unveiled his plan to impose high tariffs on imports from most of the world’s countries—which he called “Liberation Day“—he claimed that the goal of his scheme was to bring about an “ECONOMIC REVOLUTION.” But that implied a level of planning and strategy that has been sorely lacking in the way Trump has handled tariffs since April 2. He jacked up tariffs (relying on an absurd formula), only to roll them back when markets cratered. He promised that trade deals galore were in the offing, only to then say he would raise tariffs unilaterally because the deals were taking too long to do. And he promised a 90-day pause on all the reciprocal tariffs, only to now say he’s going to tariff the EU less than 60 days into the pause. The most obvious consequence of Trump’s chaotic trade policy is that he has massively increased the amount of uncertainty American businesses (and, by extension, American consumers) will face going forward. It’s next to impossible for businesses that import goods (either for sale or as part of their supply chain) to make reasonable plans for the future, since there’s no way for them to know what Trump will require them to pay for imports down the road. Nor is there any guarantee that the tariff rates Trump comes up with will stay the same over time. As a result, companies don’t know whether they now should be massively stocking up on imports in anticipation of higher tariffs (a move that would increase their inventory costs)—or if they should be buying like normal in anticipation that deals will get made. They have to decide, but that decision can’t be built on much more than guesswork.  The only thing companies do know, in fact, is that regardless of whatever else Trump decides, they’re going to have to pay a 10% universal tariff on everything they import (along with permanently higher tariffs on imports from certain countries, like China). This universal 10% tariff—which Trump imposed on Liberation Day and kept in place even as he rolled his other tariffs back—is not a bargaining tool or a threat: It’s here to stay for as long as Trump remains president. So companies are facing permanently higher import costs on top of major uncertainty. The fact that, for all his changes of mind, Trump has stayed committed to the 10% universal tariff isn’t surprising. In the first place, it was one of his oft-repeated campaign promises—he said it would be a “ring” around the U.S. economy. And it fits well with Trump’s basic view of trade, which is that when we buy stuff made abroad, we’re “losing money,” so the government should charge what he thinks of as effectively a cover charge to sell to U.S. customers. (That cover charge, of course, is paid by the U.S. businesses that are importing the goods, but Trump prefers to ignore that fact.) Trump may talk about the importance of opening foreign markets (as he did in his post about the EU Friday morning), but he’s always been more interested in imposing tariffs on imports than he has been in encouraging exports. The 10% tariff is not as dramatic as the China tariffs or the threats against the EU and Apple, which helps explain why investors have, for the most part, shrugged off its potential impact. But American businesses and consumers won’t be so lucky. That’s why Walmart said on an earnings call last week that it would be hiking prices as soon as the end of the month because of tariff costs. As the company’s CFO explained in an interview with CNBC: “We’re wired for everyday low prices, but the magnitude of these increases is more than any retailer can absorb. And so I’m concerned that consumer is going to start seeing higher prices.” This of course infuriated Trump, who wrote on TruthSocial that Walmart should “eat the tariffs.” But the company was simply acknowledging economic reality: Its net profit margin last year was around 2.6%, and it imports almost $50 billion a year in goods from China alone, plus tens of billions of dollars of goods from other countries. It does not have the leeway to absorb a sizable increase in the price of those goods without passing at least some of the cost along. And the same is true of many other retailers—indeed, it’s even more true of small- to medium-size retailers. In response to Trump’s criticism, Walmart said: “We’ll keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can, given the reality of small retail margins.” But the message was ultimately the same: Prices will have to rise.  Those price increases are not likely to be massive. But that doesn’t mean they won’t matter. What Trump’s policy means is that we are now looking at a global economy in which tariffs are going to be higher across the board, and in which he is imposing, at a minimum, a new 10% tax on trade. When you tax something, you get less of it—meaning that in addition to higher retail prices, we’re likely to have less trade and lower retail sales. This will be even more true if Trump follows through on his latest threats. But even if he backs down from them, the Yale Budget Lab estimates that a universal 10% tariff, along with 60% tariffs on Chinese imports (which would be a little higher than they are now), would cost consumers, on average, a minimum of $1,900 a year in higher prices, and could shrink U.S. GDP by somewhere between 0.5% and 1.4%. We may yet dodge the disaster that the U.S. is headed for if Trump ends up returning to his original Liberation Day tariffs, and if we have a real trade war with the EU and China. But even if we do, the tariffs we’ll still be stuck with are going to be a permanent, steady drag on the economy—a drag that may not be big enough to make headlines but that nonetheless will be impossible to avoid.  

Hollywood’s actors’ union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Epic Games on Monday, alleging the company replaced actors’ work by using artificial intelligence to generate Darth Vader’s voice in Fortnite without notice.The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said Llama Productions, a subsidiary of the gaming giant, “failed and refused to bargain in good faith with the union” in the last six months. The company made unilateral changes to the terms and conditions of employment “without providing notice to the union or the opportunity to bargain” by using AI-generated voices to replace bargaining unit work, Sag-Aftra said. Epic Games did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Sag-Aftra called for a strike against major game companies in July after more than a year of negotiations around the union’s interactive media agreement broke down over concerns around the use of unregulated artificial intelligence. The strike is ongoing.In a statement, Sag-Aftra said the union supports the rights of members and their estates to control the use of their digital replicas.“However, we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members, including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader’s iconic rhythm and tone in video games,” the union said.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to TechScapeFree weekly newsletterA weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our livesPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionEpic is engaged in a separate major legal battle at the same time it faces the ire of the actors’ union. Late last week, Fortnite became unavailable on iPhones and iPads the world over after Apple rejected the resubmission of the game to the App Store. The game had been unavailable as the two fought a lengthy court case, in which Epic scored a major victory last month allowing for in-app purchases to be made without the use of Apple’s systems.