Blizzard's Overwatch team has combined: “We're not just numbers on Excel paper”

Blizzard's Overwatch 2 team has been unionized. The Wall-to-Wall Alliance (as the Overwatch Game Manufacturers Association) includes nearly 200 developers, including artists and quality inspection testers to writers and engineers. yes The second union has been formed in the company since July last yearWhen the team behind Blizzard's popular MMO world successfully formed their own alliance. Communication Workers of America (CWA) announces union in a press release shared with My city Earlier today, it was written that “the vast majority of workers” supported the program.

“The game developers behind the popular Activision Blizzard franchise Overwatch join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) to become the latest video game workers in a Microsoft-owned studio to form a wall alliance,” the CWA wrote. “The neutral arbitrators today confirmed that the vast majority of workers either signed union authorization cards or said they want to represent union representatives through an online portal.”

With the Overwatch 2 team union, the number of union developers working at Microsoft now exceeds 2,000 employees. But Overwatch Games Association now has to bargain to get to its first contract – Microsoft has been Accused of dragging out.

According to Simon Hedrick, a test analyst at Blizzard, the layoffs in early 2024 were largely what prompted the team union conference. Hedrick told My city “At that moment, I was very happy with my work.” Of course, Hedrick meant Microsoft sweeping down employees Last January, the tech giant laid off more than 1,900 employees from its video game division, including Blizzard president Mike Ybarra.

“People are everywhere, and we can't do anything about it,” Hedrick told Kodaku.

In addition to the looming threat of layoffs, the Overwatch 2 team also cited salary differences, restrictions at work, and the desire for certain protections (such as freedom from austerity and guaranteed severance costs), which are factors in its unionization. According to Kotaku, Blizzard employees repeatedly stress that “improving their working conditions can also lead to better games”, and layoffs and uncompetitive salaries will make them worse.

Blizzard UI artist Sadie Boyd also praised the union’s decision and told Kotaku: “We’re not just numbers on Excel paper. We want to make games, but we can’t do that without a sense of security.”