According to IGN, 165 workers at id Software, the legendary studio behind Doom and Quake, have voted to unionize with the Communications Workers of America. This new “wall-to-wall” union, formed in late 2024, includes developers, artists, and programmers across all disciplines. Microsoft has formally recognized the union, honoring its 2022 pledge to remain neutral and voluntarily recognize organized groups. Senior VFX artist Caroline Pierrot cited industry instability and the need for remote work protections as key concerns. This follows a cascade of unions at Microsoft studios, including at Activision Blizzard teams for Diablo in August 2024, Overwatch in May 2024, and the entire World of Warcraft team in 2023.
Microsoft’s Neutral Stance is a Game-Changer
Here’s the thing: Microsoft’s public neutrality agreement is probably the single biggest factor enabling this wave. They’re not fighting it. And in an industry known for brutal crunch and layoffs, that’s a monumental shift. It basically removes the biggest, most expensive hurdle to unionizing: a nasty, public legal fight with the parent company. So instead of spending energy on a recognition battle, these new unions, like the one at id, can immediately start negotiating on the actual issues. It’s a pragmatic business move for Microsoft, too. After the grueling, reputation-damaging fight to acquire Activision Blizzard, avoiding more labor strife is just smart PR and operational stability.
The Snowball Effect is Real
Look at the timeline. It’s a textbook domino effect. Once the Zenimax QA workers won their union and then a contract, it proved it could be done under Microsoft. Then Raven Software. Then the floodgates opened at Activision Blizzard with teams for Overwatch, WoW, and Diablo. Now, id Software—a foundational pillar of the entire PC gaming industry. When workers at a studio with that much prestige and history say, “We need a union for stability,” it sends a powerful message to every other developer. It normalizes the idea. The question isn’t “Will there be more unions?” anymore. It’s “Which studio is next?”
Beyond Crunch, The New Fight is Stability
The old union conversation was almost exclusively about “crunch culture”—those brutal, mandatory overtime periods to ship a game. And that’s still part of it. But listen to what Caroline Pierrot said: “an industry that has proven to be very unstable.” That’s the 2024 headline. They’re unionizing against the constant, terrifying churn of mass layoffs. They’re organizing for things like remote work protections, so a sudden, top-down RTO mandate doesn’t upend their lives. This is about securing a semblance of predictability in a famously volatile field. It’s a mature response to an immature business model. When even the most iconic studios aren’t safe, workers are building their own safety nets.
