Nearly 200 Overwatch developers at Activision Blizzard have formed a new union under the Communications Workers of America called The Overwatch Gamemakers Guild—CWA, “a wall-to-wall unit that includes game developers across all disciplines, including design, production, engineering, art, sound, and quality assurance.”
The announcement of the new union followed confirmation from a neutral arbitrator that an “overwhelming majority” of employees had either signed a union authorization card or indicated support for unionization online. The CWA says Microsoft has recognized the union.
“After a long history of layoffs, crunch, and subpar working conditions in the global videogame industry, my coworkers and I are thrilled to be joining the broader union effort to organize our industry for the better, which has been long overdue,” senior test analyst II and organizing committee member Foster Elmendorf said. “Workers organizing themselves and striving for better conditions as a group allows us to present initiatives that would not only improve our workplace but videogames overall.”
There has indeed been a big push toward unionization in recent years, and Microsoft has earned some credit in years past for not actively opposing such efforts: In 2022, for instance, the CWA trumpeted a “ground-breaking labor neutrality agreement” with Microsoft over unionization at Activision Blizzard, which at that time was not officially a part of Microsoft, and in 2023 it ran a pro-union ad in the Washington Post that was endorsed by the CWA. The following year, World of Warcraft senior producer Samuel Cooper gave credit to Microsoft for helping to facilitate the unionization of WoW devs.
Microsoft isn’t the only beneficiary of game industry unionization efforts. One major move occurred in March, when the CWA announced United Videogame Workers—CWA, an industry-wide, “direct-join organization” that’s open to developers regardless of where they work (as long as it’s in North America) or whether their individual workplace is already organized.
Much of the drive to unionize arises from the absolutely brutal layoffs of 2023 and 2024, which saw tens of thousands of people in the industry put out of work. Speaking to Kotaku, Blizzard test analyst Simon Hedrick said “the biggest issue was the layoffs at the beginning of 2024,” when Microsoft cut 1,900 jobs at Activision Blizzard and Xbox. “People were gone out of nowhere and there was nothing we could do about it,” Hedrick said. “What I want to protect most here is the people.”
Overwatch UI artist Sadie Boyd, who was previously with Arkane Austin before Microsoft closed the studio, expressed similar sentiments on X.
“Not only do I get to work alongside an incredibly talented team, but also with some of the most thoughtful and kindhearted people I’ve ever encountered,” she wrote. “It’s because of their nature that we unionize—to protect them.”
The bloom might be starting to come off Microsoft’s seemingly pro-union rose a little bit: In April 2025, members of the ZeniMax Workers United-CWA union voted “overwhelmingly” to authorize union leadership to call for a strike if contract negotiations, which have been underway for nearly two years, continue to fail to make meaningful headway.
Nonetheless, the Communications Workers of America says more than 2,600 people at Microsoft studios have joined CWA-affiliated unions since the labor neutrality agreement was reached, enabling them to “collectively push for workplace improvements like layoff protections, job security, wage increases, limits to outsourcing, and remote work protections.”
