More Blizzard Workers to Unionize

Business

16 October 2025 13:00

A significant portion of Activision Blizzard’s workforce has taken another major step toward union representation. Over 400 employees from the company’s Platform and Technology division have voted to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA), marking yet another successful organizing effort within the gaming giant.

The newly unionized group spans a wide range of roles—including designers, engineers, QA testers, localization staff, and Battle.net team members—adding to the growing number of organized units across Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft, which completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023, has reportedly recognized the union.

Organizing committee members Daniel Weltz, Alex Kohn, and Timothy Biley cited concerns around low pay and recent layoffs as primary motivations for unionizing. They noted that the loss of colleagues due to insufficient compensation or redundancies drove home the need for stronger worker protections.

“Having more unions increase workplace standards across the board,” the group stated. “Workplaces will now have to offer certain things in order to remain competitive to workers. The industry itself also tends to view the people who make video games as disposable… we’re hopeful that with more unions in the industry, we can turn that perception around.”

Weltz added that the people within the company are what give it its culture and identity.

“Our culture is our people, and we can’t afford to lose that,” he said.

This development follows similar moves earlier in the year, when workers in Blizzard’s Story and Franchise Development (SFD) division voted to unionize. That group joined a growing number of employees across Microsoft-owned studios—now totaling nearly 3,000—who are represented by the CWA.

The union momentum within Activision Blizzard began gaining national attention in 2021, when Raven Software’s QA team in Wisconsin voted to unionize after a series of layoffs and workplace concerns. That group later filed a complaint against Activision and Microsoft, alleging refusal to engage in collective bargaining.

With each new union vote, workers across the gaming industry continue to push for more accountability, fair treatment, and job security in a historically volatile field. The Platform and Technology division now joins a growing coalition of developers demanding change from within.

More:Activision Blizzard Walk Out

Tags: Blizzard

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