Microsoft Layoffs Push Diablo Team to Seek Protection Through Unionization Under CWA
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Key points
- Over 450 game developers behind the Diablo series have voted in favor of union representation with the Communications Workers of America.
- Another Blizzard team associated with the Story and Franchise Development also voted in favor of union representation with the CWA.
Over 450 game developers behind the Diablo series, working under Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard, have voted in favor of union representation with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), according to an official statement posted on the CWA’s website on Aug. 28, 2025.
“The day after the third round of mass layoffs, I walked into the office, and when I tried to open the door to the cafeteria, my badge was denied. For a moment, I wondered if getting breakfast was how I’d find out I was part of that round,” said Ryan Littleton, game designer for Diablo. “While luckily it was just a technical issue, none of us should have to live with that constant worry that we might be let go at the drop of a hat. A union allows us to organize across the industry to make great games and protect the developers who create them from the constant pressures of layoffs, passion tax, and crunch.”
The news comes on the heels of another group of Blizzard workers, specifically the Story and Franchise Development team, voting in favor of union representation with the CWA a couple of weeks earlier.
The wave of unionization activity was caused by Microsoft Gaming laying off a significant number of employees amid a massive cut of approximately 9,100 jobs at Microsoft across multiple departments in July 2025, which was only exacerbated by the company’s CEO statement following the layoffs, declaring Microsoft’s thriving condition.
On top of that, the situation has been made worse by the two-year-long battle of the ZeniMax Workers Union to reach an agreement with Microsoft, which decided to make concessions only when threatened by a strike.
