Almost 200 Overwatch builders at Activision Blizzard have fashioned a brand new union below the Communications Employees of America referred to as The Overwatch Gamemakers Guild—CWA, “a wall-to-wall unit that features sport builders throughout all disciplines, together with design, manufacturing, engineering, artwork, sound, and high quality assurance.”
The announcement of the brand new union adopted affirmation from a impartial arbitrator that an “overwhelming majority” of workers had both signed a union authorization card or indicated assist for unionization on-line. The CWA says Microsoft has acknowledged the union.
“After an extended historical past of layoffs, crunch, and subpar working circumstances within the world videogame {industry}, my coworkers and I are thrilled to be becoming a member of the broader union effort to arrange our {industry} for the higher, which has been lengthy overdue,” senior take a look at analyst II and organizing committee member Foster Elmendorf stated. “Employees organizing themselves and striving for higher circumstances as a gaggle permits us to current initiatives that may not solely enhance our office however videogames general.”
There has certainly been an enormous push towards unionization lately, and Microsoft has earned some credit score in years previous for not actively opposing such efforts: In 2022, for example, the CWA trumpeted a “ground-breaking labor neutrality settlement” with Microsoft over unionization at Activision Blizzard, which at the moment was not formally part of Microsoft, and in 2023 it ran a pro-union advert within the Washington Publish that was endorsed by the CWA. The next yr, World of Warcraft senior producer Samuel Cooper gave credit score to Microsoft for serving to to facilitate the unionization of WoW devs.
Microsoft is not the one beneficiary of sport {industry} unionization efforts. One main transfer occurred in March, when the CWA introduced United Videogame Employees—CWA, an industry-wide, “direct-join group” that is open to builders no matter the place they work (so long as it is in North America) or whether or not their particular person office is already organized.
A lot of the drive to unionize arises from the completely brutal layoffs of 2023 and 2024, which noticed tens of 1000’s of individuals within the {industry} put out of labor. Chatting with Kotaku, Blizzard take a look at analyst Simon Hedrick stated “the most important difficulty was the layoffs in the beginning of 2024,” when Microsoft reduce 1,900 jobs at Activision Blizzard and Xbox. “Individuals have been gone out of nowhere and there was nothing we may do about it,” Hedrick stated. “What I need to shield most right here is the individuals.”
Overwatch UI artist Sadie Boyd, who was beforehand with Arkane Austin earlier than Microsoft closed the studio, expressed related sentiments on X.
“Not solely do I get to work alongside an extremely gifted group, but additionally with a few of the most considerate and kindhearted individuals I’ve ever encountered,” she wrote. “It is due to their nature that we unionize—to guard them.”
The bloom is perhaps beginning to come off Microsoft’s seemingly pro-union rose slightly bit: In April 2025, members of the ZeniMax Employees United-CWA union voted “overwhelmingly” to authorize union management to name for a strike if contract negotiations, which have been underway for almost two years, proceed to fail to make significant headway.
Nonetheless, the Communications Employees of America says greater than 2,600 individuals at Microsoft studios have joined CWA-affiliated unions because the labor neutrality settlement was reached, enabling them to “collectively push for office enhancements like layoff protections, job safety, wage will increase, limits to outsourcing, and distant work protections.”
