Game developers at Wizards of the Coast are moving to unionize, citing concerns about job security, artificial intelligence protections, and a newly imposed return-to-office mandate that could force remote workers to relocate or lose their positions.
More than 100 workers at the studio, which develops digital versions of Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, announced Monday they intend to join the Communications Workers of America. The group has filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board and is simultaneously requesting voluntary recognition from management, offering to withdraw the election petition if the company agrees by May 1.
The unionization effort centers on workplace protections that current staff say are absent. Workers want guarantees around layoffs, the ability to work remotely, guardrails on generative AI use, manageable workloads, and transparent career paths. The push comes after Hasbro, the parent company, cut about 30 Wizards employees in March 2025 and eliminated 1,100 positions across the broader organization in December 2023.
The return-to-office mandate emerged as a flashpoint. Rogue Kessler, a designer at the Renton, Washington studio, explained the pressure on staff: "We have people living all over the country, and many of those folks were hired remotely in the first place. They've never been to Washington. They've never lived here, and now they're being told all of a sudden that they need to move to Seattle, uproot their families, sell their homes and relocate here in two years or lose their job."
Kessler connected the mandate to broader anxiety. Layoffs at both Wizards and parent company Hasbro have left workers concerned about job stability, making the forced relocation feel like an impossible choice for staff with families and established lives elsewhere.
Software engineer Valentine Powell argued that management has ignored worker concerns and that unionization is necessary to force change. "They just aren't working with the people who are on the ground level and so unionization is our best effort to try and rectify that," Powell said.
The union is also pushing back against the use of AI in game development. Powell contended that artificial intelligence has underperformed in their specific context. "When it comes to the product that we're trying to make, I believe that AI has consistently shown worse results. It takes longer and it just sort of harms the end product," Powell said.
Powell warned that enforcing the return-to-office policy will cause the studio to lose experienced talent. The engineer appealed directly to the player base, saying the developers who create the games are deeply committed and likely to exit if the mandate moves forward. "I really believe unionization is the only thing that's going to save the games industry," Powell added.
Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro did not respond to requests for comment.
This unionization bid follows a wave of organizing in the video game industry. The Communications Workers of America achieved a major win in 2024 when 600 quality assurance workers at Activision became the largest certified union in the U.S. video game sector.
Author James Rodriguez: "A return-to-office mandate that forces remote workers to uproot their families or quit is a unionization accelerant, plain and simple."
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