Another union has formed at Microsoft-owned Blizzard Entertainment, with the iconic game studio’s Story and Franchise Development team (SFD) the latest to organize.
A press release from the Communication Workers of America (CWA) on Tuesday confirms that over 160 workers voted in favor of a union, becoming the first “in-house cinematic, animation, and narrative studio” to form a union in the United States.
“After more than a decade working at Blizzard, I’ve seen all the highs and lows. For years, Blizzard has been a place where people could build their careers and stay for decades, but that stability’s been fading,” says Bucky Fisk, principal editor and a member of the organizing committee.
“With a union, we’re able to preserve what makes this place special, secure real transparency in how decisions are made, and make sure policies are applied fairly to everyone.”
SFD handles numerous things at Blizzard Entertainment, working on the stories and trailers for massive games like Diablo 4, while also crafting the legendary cinematics that the studio is so well-known for. SFD also functions as a team of historians, archiving things as needed.
SFD joins multiple other video game development teams that have unionized under Microsoft, including elsewhere at Blizzard Entertainment. Back in May, the Overwatch 2 development team organized, while the World of Warcraft team unionized back in July 2024.
Almost 3,000 workers are now unionized across Microsoft’s gaming division as a whole. Outside of Blizzard, wall-to-wall unions have organized at Bethesda Game Studios and ZeniMax Online Studios. Quality assurance testers at ZeniMax Media were the first to organize under Microsoft all the way back in 2023.
“Our department has some of the most talented and dedicated people I’ve ever worked with. I’m excited that we have joined together in forming a union to protect my colleagues from things like misguided policies and instability as a result of layoffs,” says John Giarratana, cinematic producer and member of the organizing committee.
“People at our studio love working here, and I think that organizing gives us an opportunity to make our workplace better and safer.”
As the weight of layoffs continues, workers are pushing back
This news comes a few weeks after Microsoft held another round of layoffs across the Xbox division, cutting workers from across different teams such as King and ZeniMax Media and canceling multiple projects, including a new MMORPG from ZeniMax Online Studios.
While many of the different Xbox studios are still grappling with those losses, workers are continuing to push and further organize. Just over a week ago, Raven Software quality assurance testers recently agreed to a contract with Microsoft.
There’s no perfect way to prevent layoffs, but the more workers organize, the more they can stand in the way of their parent company when needed. Various Microsoft employees speaking with Windows Central have emphasized the continued need for unionization, especially in the wake of these layoffs.
I’m happy to see the SFD team unionized, and I’m hopeful we’ll see additional unions following in the weeks and months ahead, both at Microsoft and elsewhere.
