Xbox executive Phil Spencer stated that the company will not stand against the unionization of Raven Software employees.
During today's meeting held internally with employees of Xbox Game Studios, Phil Spencer, the Head of Xbox, announced his intention to recognize Raven Software's union. This transpired after a vote was held among the quality assurance testers at Raven to establish the first labor union at a major gaming studio.
In the course of an earlier all-hands meeting that took place approximately a year and a half ago, Spencer admitted that he did not have much experience working with unions.
However, today, Spencer stated that he and Linda Norman, Microsoft's VP, have been dedicating a lot of time to educating themselves about labor unions. According to Kotaku, Spencer added, "We absolutely support employees' right to organize and form unions."
Xbox's Phil Spencer with Raven's Unionization
The head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has stated that he will recognize the union formed at Raven Software if Microsoft has completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Raven Software is a video game publishing company that previously had exclusive deals with Activision, working on games like Call of Duty. Later on, Raven Software was acquired by Activision Blizzard.
As reported by Engadget, Spencer added, "We think it is a right of employees and something that can be a part of a relationship between a company and the people who work at the company."
This comes to no surprise as Microsoft has long been making it clear that their company will not stand in the way of any unionization.
A year ago, Raven's quality assurance testers began organizing in an effort to form a union when the company unexpectedly laid off 12 contractors.
This was in response to persistent claims made by Raven testers that they are not compensated as well as those in similar roles at Activision and that they are also expected to engage in "crunch," which is a term for the frequently excruciatingly long overtime hours that many people working in the video game industry are required to work in order to ship products on schedule.
The majority of the testers work on the popular video game Call of Duty: Warzone, and they have been organizing for several months. They have been prompted to organize by recent layoffs, excessive overtime, and inadequate compensation.
In January, 34 employees working in quality assurance for Raven submitted a request to the management team asking them to voluntarily recognize their union.
Earlier this week, QA testers at Raven conducted votes to unionize, making them the first organized workers at a AAA gaming studio in North America to do so.
As mentioned, after Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Xbox, the video gaming brand created by Microsoft, will absolutely support any employee organization.
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Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Sale
Activision Blizzard will be acquired by Microsoft in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion, which includes the net cash held by Activision Blizzard. Microsoft will pay $95.00 per share to acquire Activision Blizzard.
When the deal is finalized, according to Microsoft, it will overtake Nintendo to become the third-largest gaming firm in the world based on revenue, following Tencent and Sony.
The proposed acquisition will include well-known video game properties from Activision, Blizzard, and King Studios, such as Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty, and Candy Crush, as well as global eSports activities organized by Major League Gaming. The corporation has studios located all around the world and employs close to 10,000 people total.
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