Montreal-based Bethesda Games Studios (BGS) is the latest studio to form a union.
IN X/Twitter thread, the account of the BGS Montreal union, called One BGS MTL, revealed that it filed an application for certification with the Quebec Labor Board today. The union intends to merge with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in Canada.
“As a union, we will strive to make BGS a supportive workplace that fosters creativity and talents” – One BGS MTL Twitter account he wrote in one post. “This will allow us to continue to create some of the best video games in the industry, both at work and in the studio we all love.”
We, the creators of Bethesda Game Studios Montreal, are proud to announce that today we are celebrating the submission of an application for certification to the Quebec Labor Office with the intention of forming a trade union @cwacanada1 and joining the wider one @CWAunion family.
— One BGS MTL (@OneBGS_MTL) June 26, 2024
Rockville, Maryland-based Bethesda Game Studios announced that it will open an office in Montreal, Canada, in delayed 2015. As our sister site to GamesIndustry.biz, he wrote at that timethe head of the Montreal studio is Yves Lachance, who previously worked at Behavior Interactive, another Montreal-based studio best known for the asymmetric horror game Dead by Daylight, and previously worked with Bethesda Game Studios on Fallout Shelter before moving development to BGS Montreal .
Bethesda Game Studios Montreal is not the only ZeniMax Media studio to be united. In delayed 2022, approximately 300 quality assurance employees at ZeniMax announced they were forming a union with CWA. BGS Montreal’s unionization announcement comes at a time when the video game industry, which previously lacked unions, has seen an raise in novel unions in recent years.
Other unions that have formed in the last few years include Activision Quality Assurance United, Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS), and most recently Avalanche Studios, the developer behind the Just Cause franchise, announced last April that it had signed a collective bargaining agreement with their union employees.
In addition to the trade unions that have emerged in the gaming industry over the past few years, mass layoffs have occurred in 2023 and 2024. The start of 2024 showed that over 6,000 jobs were affected in the first two months, with the number of jobs increasing as the year progressed. Among the most infamous situations is Microsoft, the parent company of Bethesda Game Studios, which announced last month the closure of three Bethesda Softworks studios, including Redfall and Prey developer Arkane Austin and Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks.
Taylor is a reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
