Hundreds of ZeniMax workers strike over Microsoft outsourcing, remote work policies

Hundreds of staff at Bethesda parent company ZeniMax will go on strike today in protest at parent company Microsoft outsourcing work without bargaining with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union.

The one-day walkout by staff who work on Fallout, Starfield and Doom will be held today, Wednesday 13th November, from 10am to 6pm local time at four ZeniMax Studios offices in Maryland and Texas.

Staff say they are concerned over the “unilateral decision” to outsource quality assurance (QA) work to external teams at a time of uncertainty and layoffs. In short, the worry is ZeniMax will undercut its own union staff by shifting the work elsewhere.

ZeniMax workers say they have also been prompted to walk out over continued concerns over remote work policies – the same issue which sparked a protest by Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 developers at Activision’s QA studio in Minnesota at the end of last month.

Eurogamer has contacted ZeniMax and Microsoft for comment.

“Today, we are on strike,” reads a statement from the striking workers’ union posted on X. “We are not afraid to do what’s necessary to make sure that Microsoft meets us at the bargaining table over key issues like remote work options and outsourcing.”

Microsoft recognised the ZeniMax Studios union back in January 2023, when 300 video game testers who worked on ZeniMax and Bethesda titles grouped together under the CWA.

The union was the first Microsoft recognised and the largest video game union in the US. At the time, Microsoft was still battling to buy Activision Blizzard, and was keen to voluntarily recognise worker unions to mitigate concerns over its growing portfolio’s impact on workers.

“The Xbox business has never been more healthy,” Microsoft’s gaming boss Phil Spencer said in a Bloomberg interview published just earlier today, when asked what the future had in store following a year filled with Microsoft layoffs. “The business is performing right now, and I think that means a more healthy future for hardware and the games we build.”