Over 200 staffers on Blizzard's Overwatch franchise have formed a new wall-to-wall union under the banner of the Communications Workers of America, becoming the latest Blizzard outfit to do so.
Per an official announcement on the CWA website, the Overwatch Gamemakers Guild (OWGG) includes "game developers across all disciplines, including design, production, engineering, art, sound, and quality assurance".
It's the latest union to be formed as part of the wider Activision Blizzard organization. Others include a union of World of Warcraft developers, which was Blizzard's first of its kind, and a unionized group of employees at Call of Duty developer (and Activision subsidiary) Raven Software.
In the announcement, OWGG organizer and Overwatch VFX artist Frank Le Cocq says the "massive layoffs in the video game industry" prompted him to "learn about how to organize to create a healthier workplace for everyone".
He goes on to say that the aforementioned World of Warcraft union's formation was "heartening" for the then-nascent OWGG. Fellow Overwatch staffer and OWGG organizer Foster Elmendorf says the effort to "organize [the gaming] industry for the better" is "long overdue".
The new union's formation is part of a wider movement across the industry, which has...
