Magic: The Gathering Arena developers unionize, alleging forced AI use and return-to-office mandates
“We know the workers that make the game can and should be treated better.”
Workers developing Magic: The Gathering Arena are forming a union called United Wizards of the Coast. The group, which represents more than 100 card-carrying members, announced their formation under Communications Workers of America on Monday, April 27 and notified Wizards of the Coast and parent company Hasbro of their intent in a public letter.
United Wizards of the Coast extended the companies an opportunity to voluntarily recognize the union with a deadline of Friday, May 1, which is also International Workers Day. The union has filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board but clarifies that it will withdraw if WotC and Hasbro agree not to interfere and allow the workers to begin collective bargaining.
“We believe that unionizing will increase staff-wellbeing and retention, promote transparency, and ensure equity, and create the healthy environment needed to continue making exceptional products,” the letter reads. “We know the workers that make the game can and should be treated better, and our aim is to show that to the world through our union efforts. We are building the game industry we want to see in the world.”
Aftermath spoke to product manager Rogue Kessler, who said that communication between the Arena team and management has degraded recently and led to more “defensive attitudes”. A senior software engineer told Aftermath that the companies are pushing return to office mandates hard, despite promises made upon hiring. Many have been given two years to relocate to Seattle, and, reportedly, a Hasbro representative is communicating that WotC cannot change these decisions.
On top of resisting these RTO mandates, United Wizards of the Coast cited a lack of protections against generative AI as a major issue that spurred the need to unionize. The letter claims that “pressure has ramped up from leadership to adopt LLMs and Gen AI tools in various aspects of our work at WOTC, often over the explicit concerns of impacted employees.” In February, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks told investors that he was excited by the prospect of genAI tech inside all facets of the company, while maintaining that “teams have choices” about whether to use it. His claimed “human-centric, creator-led approach” contrasts with the alleged reality inside Arena’s development teams. The union wants, at least, a clear and robust AI policy within WotC that protects workers first.
Rascal reached out to Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.
United Wizards of the Coast - CWA
Layoff protections is a major issue for the union (Hasbro laid off 1,300 employees in December 2023 and 800 more earlier that same year, both of which affected WotC teams; and both tariffs and Sigil’s untimely demise have since threatened more staff), alongside addressing cyclical crunch patterns, more clearly defining career progression, and removing a Hasbro policy that allows the toy company to claim ownership of any work created by employees in their free time, even beyond work hours.
Magic: The Gathering and the digital Arena version have buoyed Hasbro’s otherwise middling economic performance for years, at this point. Cocks and his fellow executives continuously praise the trading card game’s ability to effectively print endless money, touting it as a “billion-dollar brand” (it’s now knocking on the door of $2 billion yearly) and spotlighting mounting revenue increases in every successive quarter, including $630 million at the end of 2025. In contrast, it sounds as though conditions within the teams creating these ludicrously successful games are from stable or paid what their labor is worth.
The CWA has been instrumental in a number of high-profile unions within the video game industry, including recent successes in conjunction with workers at Blizzard and Id Software just last year. Tabletop has its own union success stories within Pathfinder and Starfinder creator Paizo, Kickstarter, Noble Knight Games, TCGPlayer, and a trio of Brooklyn-based game stores who fought for a year to win against decidedly antagonistic owners.
United Wizards of the Coast is the first public unionization effort within Wizards of the Coast and the result of nearly a year of concerted effort. The union leaves the door open for further collective efforts with the company, saying that they “believe in building bridges with our peers on other teams, not divisions” and hoping WotC and Hasbro remain neutral toward all future endeavors.
Those wishing to support United Wizards of the Coast can sign an open letter pushing ownership to voluntarily recognize the union.
