Hands down, the last few years have been some of the roughest for game developers. From the horrendous state of mass layoffs to the threatening expansion of AI and machine learning, picking up a role within the gaming industry seems more challenging than ever.
In the last year alone, we’ve seen strikes such as those from video game actors in connection with SAG-AFTRA, specifically citing concerns that the increase in practices such as AI voice acting breaches the integrity and ethics behind video game acting.
This year, game developers announced at the Game Developers Conference that they have formed their union, United Videogame Workers (UVW), alongside the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
As recently announced by Kotaku, the developers of Overwatch 2 at Activision Blizzard have joined the CWA, officially forming their own union of around 200 workers called the Overwatch Gamemakers Guild.
One of the massive goals from this union, as you can likely tell, is fighting against the mass layoffs that have recently swept the industry. As revealed at the last Game Developers Conference’s yearly poll, the fear of layoffs for game developers is higher than ever.
Simon Hedrick, an analyst at Blizzard, told Kotaku that, up until the mass layoffs in 2024, “I’d been really happy in what I was doing.” Other than questions surrounding job security, one of the massive threats of mass layoffs is a degradation of employee morale.
Additionally, this union seeks to improve other aspects of the game development process, such as crunch time and harmful company environments. This is especially noteworthy, considering how Blizzard was at the forefront of allegations of hostile work environments a few years back, leading to massive company reshuffling.
Overwatch 2 itself has faced many challenges within the last few years. First, the much-anticipated PVE mode was canceled, and then, quite recently, a large portion of the player base left for games such as Marvel Rivals.
Although the game has seen a few notable updates in recent months, the state of Overwatch for the next few years remains somewhat uncertain, especially with massive design changes pivoting Overwatch 2 into a much different direction.
However, in regard to the future of Overwatch, this unionization is probably a pretty good sign that things are headed in the right direction. Recent fan reception has been pretty decent, and the changes and unionization seem to prove that developers are keen to keep improving the state of the game.
The Overwatch Gamemakers Guild will now have to begin discussions for agreements and contracts under Microsoft’s greater helm, which is sure not to be easy but important for developers’ rights everywhere.
