Hasbro Cut 2,000 Jobs. Now MTG Arena Devs Fight Back

"There are a lot of times when these sort of decisions are made to chase a dollar rather than to think about what our product is going to look like ten years from now." That's Valentine Powell, a senior software engineer on Magic: The Gathering Arena, explaining why he and more than 100 of his colleagues are forming a union with the Communications Workers of America. It's the first known labour organising effort inside Wizards of the Coast, and the timing is not subtle.

Hasbro has gutted roughly 2,000 positions across the company since 2023. Around 1,100 jobs went in December of that year, 800 more earlier in the same year, and an additional 3 percent of the company was laid off in 2025. Wizards of the Coast staff were hit directly in 2023 and 2024, and another 30 were cut in March 2025 when the publisher killed the Sigil virtual tabletop project. Through all of it, Hasbro kept telling investors that Wizards of the Coast, and Magic: The Gathering specifically, was thriving. I find it hard to blame workers for looking at that contrast and deciding they needed a seat at the table.

What the union wants

The group, calling itself United Wizards of the Coast, laid out seven demands in an open letter to management. Layoff protections top the list, followed by remote work guarantees, guardrails on generative AI adoption, sustainable workloads, clearer career progression, ownership of personal creative projects, and a say in long-term product decisions. Senior software development engineer Damien Wilson framed it bluntly in a CWA press release: "Unions are the missing counterweight to protect our craft."

The AI issue is particularly pointed. According to multiple developers who spoke publicly, leadership has been pushing teams to adopt LLM and generative AI tools despite explicit pushback from staff. Powell argued that AI-generated content "has shown worse results" and risks driving away skilled artists who care about the game. Given that Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have already been caught using AI art in Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons marketing materials, the workers aren't raising a hypothetical concern. They're describing something already happening.

Return-to-office policy appears to have been the accelerant. Engineers Neil White and Valentine Powell told reporters that Hasbro's RTO messaging over the past year went from "remote workers can stay remote" to a near-blanket in-office mandate expected sometime next year. New hires are already required to be local to Seattle. For a team that was built partly around remote talent, that's a hiring pool shrinking in real time, and a quality-of-life hit for people who structured their lives around promises the company is now walking back.

A supermajority of eligible workers on the MTG Arena team have signed union cards, and Powell noted it was "the highest amount committed to a union of any team that I've ever seen unionize." The group has filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board but says it will withdraw the filing if Hasbro voluntarily recognises the union by May 1. Players can also weigh in by signing a public petition urging Hasbro to grant recognition.

I think this one matters beyond the usual labour story. Wizards of the Coast isn't a mid-tier studio clinging to one project; it's the engine Hasbro points to every earnings call as proof the company is healthy. If the workers powering that engine are telling you they live in fear of losing their jobs while executives celebrate record Magic revenue, something is broken. Whether Hasbro recognises the union voluntarily or forces an NLRB vote, the company's response over the next few days will say a lot about how seriously it takes the people actually building its most profitable brand.

Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have not publicly responded to the union's letter. The May 1 deadline for voluntary recognition falls on Friday.