The initiative is part of a large-scale wave of union movement within Microsoft's gaming division.
Employees at id Software — the studio known for the Doom and Quake series — have voted to form a union. According to the Communications Workers of America, the initiative was supported by 165 employees out of approximately 185 who participated in the vote. The new union will be part of the CWA Local 6215 local branch and has already been officially recognized by Microsoft.
The union has a wall-to-wall format, meaning it includes employees from all departments of the studio — from developers and artists to programmers and service specialists. This approach has become increasingly common in the gaming industry in recent years and involves the collective representation of the interests of the entire team, rather than individual professional groups.
id Software producer and member of the union's organizing committee, Andrew Willis, noted that the union was a response to unilateral management decisions and general instability in the industry. According to him, the union gives developers the opportunity to regain control over working conditions and focus on creating high-quality games, rather than short-term financial performance.
The creation of a union at id Software was made possible by a labor neutrality agreement that Microsoft signed with the CWA in 2022. The document obliges the corporation to automatically recognize unions created by its employees. Since then, similar associations have appeared at Bethesda Game Studios, ZeniMax Online Studios, Blizzard, and a number of Activision teams. According to the CWA, the total number of union workers in Microsoft's gaming division is already approaching four thousand.
