Dungeons & Dragons and Studio X Teams Form Latest Wizards of the Coast Unions with CWA

Renton, Wash. - Today, Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons team (Dungeons & Dragons, D&D Beyond) and Studio X (Magic: The Gathering, Duel Masters) have announced their intent to form a union with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) as a part of United Wizards of the Coast-CWA (UWOTC-CWA). This announcement comes in the wake of the Magic: The Gathering Arena (MTG Arena) team's successful unionization with CWA. MTG Arena announced their union in April of this year and won their election this summer.

Both teams echoed many of the same reasons for forming a union as their MTG Arena counterparts. In their open letter to leadership sent this morning, members of Studio X remarked that it "has become clear that it is in the workers' best interests to pursue collective bargaining power in order to bring equity to the workplace." Their workers cited mounting instability within Wizards and the gaming industry, a desire for fair compensation that reflects their work, clearly defined career progression, and more.

Dungeons & Dragons and Studio X's union plans to follow in the footsteps of Wizards of the Coast's MTG Arena team. MTG Arena is the premier digital equivalent of Magic: The Gathering. Studio X and MTG Arena have a long-running internal relationship, and members of MTG Arena's union have voiced their support for their sibling units' efforts.

These teams have given management until Tuesday, October 13, to voluntarily recognize their union. To ensure a timely certification process, workers have also filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

"Everyone I work with makes our company, our game, and our community stronger by bringing their talent, expertise, and effort to making Magic," said UWOTC-CWA member and Magic Rules Manager Eric Levine. "Those incredible people deserve fair compensation, remote protections, clear career progression, and more. Supporting the people who make the game will ensure that Magic keeps getting better for years to come."

Joey Haeck, a member of UWOTC-CWA and senior game designer on Dungeons & Dragons, shared that they areorganizing "because scared workers are neither happy nor productive. By organizing to negotiate a fair contract on issues of layoff protections, forced relocation protections, equitable pay and career advancement, mandatory AI use protections, parental support, and more, we make our game better by investing in our human creators and resisting the churn and brain drain caused by roller-coaster layoffs."

Haeck's concerns around layoffs and the encroachment of AI represent pressing concerns in the gaming industry, and recent unionization efforts have worked to address these concerns through collective action. Other gaming studios like Blizzard, Paizo, and more have joined with CWA to secure further protections for their workers. Over 4,000 workers have organized across the gaming industry to expand game worker solidarity as part of CWA's Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA), spanning from AAA studios in Microsoft's gaming division to independent publishers.

"With the holiday season right around the corner, it's crucial that the labor movement continues to uplift and stand in solidarity with the tabletop workers behind the games we all get to enjoy with our chosen communities, who are fighting for layoff protections, guardrails against AI usage, and transparency in the workplace between workers and management," said CWA District 7 Vice President Susie McAllister. "Like the workers before them at MTG Arena, CWA looks forward to supporting these workers as they undergo their campaign for voluntary recognition and union representation towards a better workplace."

Workers who have either been affected by the gaming industry's volatile layoffs or are freelance have also been joining the fight under CWA's direct-join formation, United Videogame Workers-CWA Local 9433 (UVW-CWA), which officially launched in 2025. UVW-CWA now has nearly 600 members across the United States and Canada.

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The Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA) is a network of worker-organizers and their staff working every single day to build the voice and power necessary to ensure the future of the tech, game, and digital industries in the United States and Canada. CODE-CWA is a project of the Communications Workers of America, which represents hundreds of thousands of workers throughout tech, media, telecom, and other industries who stand together to fight for justice on the job and in our communities.

cwa-union.org @cwaunion