The group of practically 200 Activision Blizzard builders behind the Overwatch franchise has unionized. Fashioned beneath the Communications Employees of America (CWA), the Overwatch Gamemakers Guild is the economist wall-to-wall Blizzard union to be acknowledged by guardian firm Microsoft for the reason that World of Warcraft development team announced its own union final July.
The CWA announced on Friday that “an awesome majority of employees have both signed a union authorization card or indicated that they needed union illustration.” The Overwatch union unit consists of recreation builders throughout manufacturing, engineering, design, artwork, sound, and high quality assurance, pushing for job safety, wage, and layoff safety enhancements.
“After an extended historical past of layoffs, crunch, and subpar working circumstances within the international online game trade, my coworkers and I are thrilled to be becoming a member of the broader union effort to arrange our trade for the higher, which has been lengthy overdue,” organizing committee member Foster Elmendorf stated within the CWA’s assertion.
The CWA says that over 2,600 employees at Microsoft-owned gaming studios have now joined its ranks, together with a union fashioned by 600 quality assurance workers employed at Activision in March 2024. These strings of unionization efforts observe a labor neutrality settlement that was signed between the CWA and Microsoft in 2022 that made it simpler for staffers at subsidiaries like Activision Blizzard to arrange.