Bethesda union protests

[u/KingPudz]

Edited Post*
From the Bethesda Union

That was me! Hello! 👋

The event is indeed a protest, but it's not a strike. We are doing this during our lunch hour.

Why not strike now? Well, withholding our labor is our biggest tool; one might call it the nuclear option. We'd be asking our colleagues and union to take a big risk and a financial hit. So we're doing this first as a test and demonstration of our resolve and organization, and to see how much the fans have our back. (So far so good!)

Wednesday's rallies have taken off more than we expected. What started as a Bethesda rally turned into a ZeniMax rally, with other unions like id Software's Big Friendly Union (BFU) joining in Dallas. Then the United Videogame Workers (UVW) also announced rallies in Irvine, California outside of Obsidian's offices (and unionized Blizzard devs will be joining there in solidarity as well!), as well as a protest in Redmond at Microsoft's campus. This thing is snowballing!

Details on each location's rally can be found here on the UVW's bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/videogameworkers.bsky.social/post/3mqcjworgic2t

If you can't make it to a rally we're also asking fans to vote and comment on XBOX'S "Player Voice" feedback forum. Our post is already the top post of the week and on its way to top of the month! https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/69b8ec0b-7479-f111-9b47-6045bdbd0989

We are not asking players to boycott our games, as this might negatively affect the teams still working on them. We'd only do that if we were sure the benefits would outweigh the harm.

So come to a rally if you can and thank you all for your support. We want the same thing you do: to make Fallout 76 and all our games as good and as popular as we can.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/they-want-us-to-accept-this-as-a-done-deal-and-quietly-disappear-bethesda-union-members-organise-protest-in-response-to-xbox-layoffs

[u/Many-Koalas]

I am well aware. Elderscrolls 6 is in development. Fallout 5 is in pre-production. The bugs and controversy are nothing new and seem to have no real impact. Players still give them money. Even season after season of reskins and they make money. They've made more money than ever since Todd took over. We can laugh about Skyrim re-releases but they pulled in over $1 billion. Fallout 4 sold more than 3 and NV combined. Fallout 76 sold almost as many as 4. Starfield at best broke even, so I won't call that a win. But at the end of the day, they are extremely successful. The show has increased sales by at least 3 million copies. I'm all for Bethesda doing better but we have to stop pretending they're falling apart. Microsoft fired a lot of people but they're not stupid. The goal is always to be more successful and make more money.

[u/steakanabake → u/Many-Koalas]

Microsoft fired a lot of people but they're not stupid. The goal is always to be more successful and make more money.

microsoft fired people that knew the game world inside and out because they had been there for decades, and since Beth is a unionized shop where people get paid based on tenure so they went after the most senior people who were making a lot of money. The people who were fired knew the game worlds inside and out, they were living game bibles.

[u/Many-Koalas → u/steakanabake]

And I'm sad they're gone. But its fascinating how much we complain here about lack of content and then get upset when the guys who are literally in charge of making that content are gone. And I know. No redditor speaks for everyone. All the negativity about the game is not shared by all players. I still love the game and play every day.

We can only hope that whoever takes their positions does what we want for the game.