Respond to the layoffs! Blizzard's Diablo team set up a 450-man union

　　Blizzard Entertainment added another large union - More than 450 developers of the Team 3 team responsible for the Diablo series recently established a union under the framework of the American Communications Workers Association (CWA). This is the largest full-time union organization in Blizzard in recent years, and it is also an important milestone for Microsoft's unionized workers to exceed 3,500.

　　Since the Raven Software quality inspection team established Activision Blizzard's first union "Game Workers Alliance" in 2022, the "World of Warcraft" and "Overwatch" teams have successively formed similar organizations. The "wall-to-wall union" that all members of Diablo joined will respond to Microsoft's layoffs through collective negotiations and strive for higher salaries, rights protection and welfare benefits for members.

According to CWA data, the union is second only to the 500-person World of Warcraft developers union established in July 2024 in Microsoft's system. This year, Microsoft has implemented four rounds of layoffs (January, May, June and July), with a total of about 15,000 employees being cut. In addition, the industry pressure brought by the promotion of generative AI technology has prompted the unionization movement to continue to heat up. Although unions cannot completely avoid the impact of layoffs or policy changes, they can strengthen workers' collective voice and provide a safe net.

August has become a key month in the process of Blizzard's unionization: On August 13, Blizzard Story and IP Development Team has taken the lead in establishing the first similar union in North America covering animators, film and television experts and narrative writers, continuing to write a new chapter in the struggle for labor rights in the game industry.