How QA workers are driving the video game industry’s union push
For decades, the North American video game industry has resisted unionization — though workers have long been organizing among themselves, the industry’s first official union didn’t form until late last year. The movement is still young, with three industry unions on the books and others in the works. One group of workers is consistently leading the charge: quality assurance.
Quality assurance, or simply QA, works long hours to play, test, and break games so that players at home never see the hundreds or thousands of bugs that can infest games during their development. Big games like Call of Duty can have more than a thousand people trying to squash bugs, often under serious crunch conditions.
QA workers across the industry often describe their work as undervalued, with low wages and brutal overtime hours. Many work on a contract basis, meaning they have little job security and face challenges in advancing their careers. QA workers say they feel vulnerable and exploited. The video game industry topped $60.4 billion in revenue in 2021, according to the Electronic Software Association, yet some QA workers told Polygon they can’t afford the commute to the office.
Despite this, lots of QA workers are passionate about their jobs and want to progress in the industry. And that’s why they’re trying to change it.
The first video game union wasn’t purely QA or contract workers; that was Beast Breaker developer Vodeo Games’ historic union win in 2021, which encompassed the whole studio. Activision Blizzard QA workers at Raven Software kicked off their union drive next, first breaking ground at a big, corporate video game company. After a long back-and-forth with Activision Blizzard, the group, calling themselves Game Workers
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