The team behind Doom: The Dark Ages is the latest to unionize as a wave of labor organizing continues sweeping across Microsoft-owned game studios. They join developers across Blizzard, Bethesda, and other Xbox teams in a move aimed at giving them a seat at the table in how things like layoffs are handled at the tech giant.
Roughly 165 workers at id Software announced on Friday that they had unionized with the Communications Workers of America. It’s a wall-to-wall union meaning every developer at the studio who’s not a manager will be part of it regardless of whether they’re an artist or engineer. The decision comes months after mass layoffs at Microsoft left entire games canceled and the teams behind them laid off.
“The wall-to-wall organizing effort at id Software was much needed; it’s incredibly important that developers across the industry unite to push back on all the unilateral workplace changes that are being handed down from industry executives,” id Software producer Andrew Willis said in a press release. “The union is a way for us, the developers, to take back control of the industry we love and to ensure that it delivers high-quality products from high-quality workers who have health benefits and longevity beyond quarterly profits.”
