165 employees of id Software, the studio responsible for the Doom and Quake franchises, have decided to unionize with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), creating another global developer union at Microsoft.
The modern union covers programmers, artists, coders and other disciplines, and has been formally recognized by Microsoft in line with its commitment to remain “neutral” towards unions within its ranks and voluntarily recognize any that arise. Union members suggest that the issues that concern the group include the broadly understood instability of the gaming industry as well as the need to work remotely.
“I am very proud to be involved in organizing our studio and to have a voice in decisions that directly affect me and my colleagues,” said senior VFX artist and organizing committee member Caroline Pierrot. “In an industry that has proven very volatile over the last few years, more unions mean more power for workers and a real opportunity to better shape the future of the industry.”
In recent years, Microsoft has seen a cascade of modern unions at its game studios, many of which were formed as part of the company’s latest acquisition, Activision Blizzard. Diablo developers unionized last August, as did Blizzard’s story and franchise development team, the entire World of Warcraft team unionized last year, and The creators of Overwatch followed suit in May this year. Meanwhile, Raven Software employees won their first contract earlier this year, Zenimax QA employees won a contract in May, and Bethesda’s union is still actively negotiating.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Have a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
