Here at Goonhammer, we know that it’s hard to keep track of all the news happening all the time in the games industry. So much is always going on with games of all sorts, and their related media, it can be a real blink-and-you’ll miss it situation.
That’s why every week, we round up five of the biggest stories in the gaming sphere from the past week in the Games Industry News Roundup. Our trusty news boy, Dan “Swiftblade” Richardson, is here with the scoop.
World of Warcraft Designers Unionize at Blizzard
Hot on the heels of the announcement that workers at Bethesda Game Studios Unionized through the Communication Workers of America (CWA), the Warcraft team at Blizzard Entertainment announced they too have successfully unionized through the CWA.
The newly unionized team represents about 500 workers at Blizzard who are responsible for the development of titles based in the Warcraft IP, most notably World of Warcraft. In light of this, the group of unionized employees elected to call themselves the “World of Warcraft Gamemaker’s Guild.” The WoW Gamemaker’s Guild is a “wall-to-wall” union, similar to Bethesda, meaning that the organization covers multiple teams within the Warcraft studio, such as QA, Art, Engineering, and Production.
The success of this effort is in no small part due to Microsoft’s unusually hands-off approach to unionization within it’s gaming division. As part of the massive acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, Microsoft has a policy to remain neutral during union negotiations, and voluntarily recognize unions that achieve a majority support in elections. This allowed for unionization efforts to thrive at the newly acquired Activision-Blizzard, with the Gamemaker’s Guild Pushing the number of unionized employees at Microsoft to over 1,700.
In an email to Bloomberg, a Microsoft representative stated, “We continue to support our employees’ right to choose how they are represented in the workplace, and we will engage in good faith negotiations with the CWA as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement.”
The Gamemaker’s Guild and CWA plan to use their collective bargaining power to ensure protections on pay, remote work, and workplace diversity.
Video Game Voice Actors Go On Strike Due to Concerns over A.I.
Last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike made headline news, and brought film productions to a grinding halt until production companies agreed to open negotiations with the actors union. Some of the preliminary terms were criticized for their lack of protection for voice actors against A.I, and the issue of A.I has sparked a strike from SAG-AFTRA voice actors against several large gaming publishers.
The statement from SAG-AFTRA lays clear the A.I problem, stating in no unclear terms, “Although agreements have been reached on many issues important to SAG-AFTRA members, the employers refuse to plainly affirm, in clear and enforceable language, that they will protect all performers covered by this contract in their A.I language.”
Some of the most notable companies that are being boycotted by SAG-AFTRA members are Activision, Insomniac, Take-Two, Electronic Arts, and the popular voice-acting studio Formosa Interactive. However, projects in development prior to September 2023 are exempt from the strike, as well as ongoing live service games, according to reporting from Kotaku.
SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez spoke to the frustration felt by the union to this caveat, telling Aftermath in an interview, “We’re obviously not happy about that. That language was bargained into one of the legacy Interactive Media Agreements before merger [of SAG and AFTRA]. It’s language that the merged union basically inherited, that I think is insane. But it’s there.”
The strike went into effect on July 26th 12 AM PDT.
Mantic Brings Deadzone to a 3D Printer Near You
Mantic Games announced a partnership with My Mini Factory to launch a crowdfunding campaign to bring Deadzone to 3D printers.
Mantic’s partner in this endeavor, My Mini Factory, is a crowdfunding site specifically focused on 3D printing miniatures. The campaign is a part of a push by Mantic to increase the availability and accessibility of Deadzone around the world, and a part of their “Sci-Fi Summer” event that’s included the release of both a new faction and starter box for Deadzone. The 3D printing line is specifically focused around fixed “gangs” of models, many of which are popular but out of production sculpts. Also included is the STLs for terrain used to play games of Deadzone.
“Simply put: this means more opponents, more awareness, and more ways to hobby than ever before,” Mantic writes on their blog about the partnership.
The crowdfunding campaign on My Mini Factory has raised a little over $32,000 at the time of this writing, and closes on Monday, August 19th.
Dark Horse Comics Announces New Publishing Line in Collaboration with Wizards of the Coast
Dark Horse Comics announced in a press release that the company has partnered with Hasbro to release comics and graphic novels based on two of the biggest IP’s owned by Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast: Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons.
Dark Horse Comics is most well known for publishing titles such as the Hellboy series, 300, Sin City, and Umbrella Academy, as well as comics based on pop culture IPs such as Alien, Predator, and Star Wars. Dark Horse is also responsible for the second printing of the rulebook for the excellent mecha-TTRPG, Lancer.
Dark Horse previously collaborated with Wizards of the Coast in the 1990s to release comics and graphic novels based on Magic, as well as Dungeons and Dragons related comic tie-ins based on Stranger Things.
“If you’d told my 12-year-old self I’d get to work with incredible writers and artists to craft comics for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS and MAGIC: THE GATHERING, alongside such thoughtful and creative stewards of these licenses, I wouldn’t have believed you,” senior editor at Dark Horse, Spencer Cushing, said in the press release. “The opportunity to work with Wizards of the Coast is a dream come true.”
The first titles from this collaboration are due to hit store shelves in the summer of 2025.
Infinity Is the Next Wargame to Receive an Official Animated Series
Not to be left in the dust by the animations on Warhammer+, as well as an impending Amazon series based on the Warhammer 40,000 IP, Corvus Belli announced that it’s partnered with Lex+Otis studios and TeamTO to bring Infinity to the screen with Infinity: Paradise Lost.
Producing and directing Paradise Lost is Jay Olivia, whose previous works include several animated features at Warner Bros, such as part one and two of The Dark Knight Returns animated movie and Flashpoint animated movie.
Olivia speaks to his experience pitching Paradise Lost, writing, “I played – and loved – the game, so I reached out to the Corvus Belli team, introduced myself, and then flew to Spain to make my pitch We developed the series over a week in Spain and, though Covid held us up for a beat, the animated Infinity was born.”
The announced cast of Paradise Lost includes Zehra Fazal, Jason Spisak, Raffi Barsoumian, Abubakr Ali, Emily O’Brien, Nick E. Tarabay, and Roshelle Simpson. The series was unveiled to industry insiders at the Annecy Film Festival in June, and Infinity: Paradise Lost is currently entertaining distributors according to Corvus Belli.
And that wraps it up for our Games Industry News Roundup this week! Join us again next week for more news about the tabletop games industry and related media.
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