About 200 Blizzard employees form the Overwatch Gamemakers Guild
About 200 workers involved in the development of the shooter game '
Overwatch Game Developers Secure Union Recognition with Communications Workers of America | Communications Workers of America
https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/overwatch-game-developers-secure-union-recognition-communications-workers-america
Nearly 200 Overwatch developers at Blizzard form a new union: The Overwatch Gamemakers Guild | PC Gamer
The union includes about 200 game developers from Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of Overwatch, and its parent company, Activision Blizzard, representing a wide range of areas including design, production, engineering, art, sound, and quality assurance.
The background to the formation of the union is the successive layoffs in the technology industry. Just in the gaming industry, dozens of employees were laid off at Oculus Studios , a division of Meta, which owns many game studios, about 220 people lost their jobs at Bungie , the developer of Destiny 2 , and about 350 people were fired at EA due to restructuring. Activision Blizzard itself also frequently carries out layoffs at the discretion of its parent company, Microsoft.
The Overwatch Gamemakers Guild was formed to protect employees from these layoffs and to voice their opinions on work systems and working conditions. The union was formed under the Communications Workers of America and has been recognized by Microsoft.
'The video game industry around the world has long been plagued by layoffs, overtime and poor working conditions,' said Foster Elmendorf, senior analyst and union committee member. 'My colleagues and I are excited to be part of the union effort to organize for the betterment of our industry. By organizing ourselves and working as a group, we can put forward initiatives that will improve not only our workplaces, but the entire games industry.'
In addition, the Communications Workers of America also has a union for 'World of Warcraft,' developed by Blizzard Entertainment.
More than 500 members of the game 'WoW' development team announce the formation of a labor union 'World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild' - GIGAZINE
In the technology industry, some companies, such as Amazon , have been obstructing union formation, but Microsoft has been relatively tolerant of such movements, technology media PC Gamer points out. In fact, just before Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, it signed an agreement with the Communications Workers of America to 'not interfere with the formation of a union even after the acquisition is completed.' Microsoft did not oppose the formation of unions at Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, or Bethesda, which are also under its umbrella.
Fallout and Skyrim developer Bethesda employees form labor union, Microsoft's first all-employee labor union at game studio - GIGAZINE
According to the Communications Workers of America, since the non-interference agreement was reached, more than 2,600 employees from Microsoft studios have joined the Communications Workers of America union.
In addition, regarding Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a preliminary injunction in 2023, which was dismissed by the district court and appealed, but in May 2025, it was reported that the appeals court upheld the dismissal. The FTC is still challenging the order.
in Game, Posted by log1p_kr