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NEWS: S. Korea's Krafton Acquires Tango Gameworks, Studio's Hi-Fi Rush IP

Krafton is also the company that f*cked over Striking Distance by pressuring them into rushing out Callisto Protocol before it was finished, and the game had a ton of cut content because of that, so I'm guessing Tango is screwed on that end.

The developers behind World of Warcraft, one of the world’s biggest and longest-running MMORPGs, have officially unionized.

Earlier today, an official vote of over 500 eligible employees working on World of Warcraft was tallied and certified. With this, Blizzard Entertainment has its first ever “wall-to-wall” union, encompassing the entirety of a game development team instead of just one division, like QA. The union includes designers, engineers, producers, artists, QA testers, and other developers, most of whom are based in either Irvine, CA, or are part of a smaller team in Massachusetts. The group is called World of Warcraft Game Makers Guild, or WoWGG, and is a part of Communications Workers of America (CWA).

Additionally, a second group of Activision-Blizzard QA workers based in Austin, Texas have formed a separate union with Communications Workers of America, called Texas Blizzard QA United. The roughly 60 developers involved primarily work on Diablo, Hearthstone, and other games. Both unions concluded their votes today and have been officially recognized under Microsoft’s labor neutrality agreement and certified by an independent arbitrator.

“This isn't an attack against our World of Warcraft leadership or something where we're like, ‘We hate those guys.’” he said. “We just want to make sure that our voices are being heard and that at some point we don't end up as numbers on a spreadsheet. Because you go up high enough and these people have never met any of us, none of the names mean anything to them.”

WoWGG’s initial “spark” and early organizing work took place while the company was still independent of Microsoft, but last year, it was acquired. As a result, Blizzard employees benefited from Microsoft’s prior commitment to labor neutrality, effectively allowing them to organize in the open without company interference.

Cooper adds that Microsoft has upheld its commitment with regards to Blizzard.

“We had a lot of folks who, rightly or wrongly, felt fearful before,” Cooper says. “There are legal protections for organizing, but it can still be scary to have that change…We had CWA folks on campus for weeks on end, right in the middle, next to the big bronze orc. I think that really made people feel like it's not scary. I know they're not allowed to retaliate, but now I have confidence that they're not going to retaliate.”

Playground Games (Fable, Forza Horizon) Opens Third Studio in England

As wccftech notes, there are 40+ vacant positions currently advertised on the studio's website, including openings for artists, engineers, animations, and QA staff. The advertisements intimate the team is presently recruiting for its upcoming Fable game, as well as for its Forza franchise.

A couple of things I'm curious about with this are: how much did it cost? The closure already happened, so it's not like Microsoft was actively shopping it around. It feels more like picking up something at a garage sale before it goes in the dumpster. Also, will they be able to rehire staff? People may have moved on or simply not want to return after how things occurred. Then again, it seems like HiFI 2 was something they wanted to make, so maybe that will draw them back. Buying up a company name and IP doesn't mean as much if they end up with all-new hires.

A couple of things I'm curious about with this are: how much did it cost? The closure already happened, so it's not like Microsoft was actively shopping it around. It feels more like picking up something at a garage sale before it goes in the dumpster. Also, will they be able to rehire staff? People may have moved on or simply not want to return after how things occurred. Then again, it seems like HiFI 2 was something they wanted to make, so maybe that will draw them back. Buying up a company name and IP doesn't mean as much if they end up with all-new hires.

ZeniMax was already screwing Tango, so another awful company screwing them is not necessarily a downgrade.

Arale Kurashiki wrote:

ZeniMax was already screwing Tango, so another awful company screwing them is not necessarily a downgrade.

Ghostwire done by a Western company is cringe they need to buy back the IP. TANGO was kinda screwed anyway because MS doesnt vibe with Japan. The fact that Zenimax let them make Ghostwire and the VN is amazing.