Recently, the Communications Workers of America has announced that hundreds of Diablo Game Developers are unionizing in the wake of the mass layoffs around the gaming industry. As per a press release, over 450 game developers, artists, engineers, designers, and support staff across the Diablo franchise have formed a union and have been formally recognized by parent company, Microsoft.
The Diablo Team Has Unionized
“With every subsequent round of mass layoffs, I’ve witnessed the dread in my coworkers grow stronger because it feels like no amount of hard work is enough to protect us,” said Kelly Yeo, Team 3 Game Producer on Diablo and organizing committee member. “I am overjoyed that we have formed a union—this is just the first step for us joining a movement spreading across an industry that is tired of living in fear. We are ready to begin fighting for real change alongside our Diablo colleagues.”
“I grew up playing Diablo, and I feel lucky that I get to work at Blizzard on a game that’s very special to me and the gaming community,” said Skye Hoefling, Team 3 Senior Software Engineer II on Diablo and organizing committee member. “But passion can’t protect us from job instability. Our union allows us to focus on making magical experiences for our players instead of worrying about the unstable job industry.”
This has been a long time coming. Since earlier this year, Microsoft has laid off approximately 9,000 employees across multiple gaming divisions, including Activision Blizzard. Along with these layoffs, several companies have suffered, such as The Initiative, ZeniMax Online Studios, & Romero Games. Additionally, several projects, including Perfect Dark and Everwild, have been canceled as a result of these past layoffs.
The Diablo team is following in the footsteps of their World of Warcraft colleagues who have unionized in the past. This has resulted in over 3,500 workers at Microsoft organizing with CWA to date. Making this an overall wonderful and important win for developers, which will hopefully inspire other teams to form more unions, allowing developers to continue pursuing the ideal workplace environment they deserve.
