The Overwatch 2 team at Blizzard has just unionized, making it the second wall-to-wall union under Blizzard after the World of Warcraft team unionized in July 2024. It's the latest major step forward for unionization in the video game industry, as almost 200 developers at Activision Blizzard are members of the Overwatch Gamemakers Guild-CWA. They now join the ranks of One BGS USA, One BGS Montreal, ZeniMax Workers United, Game Workers Alliance at Raven Software, and the aforementioned WoWGG-CWA. "Nearly 200 game developers behind Activision Blizzard’s hit franchise Overwatch have joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA), becoming the latest group of video game workers at Microsoft-owned studios to form a wall-to-wall union," a press release from the CWA reads. "A neutral arbitrator confirmed today that an overwhelming majority of workers have either signed a union authorization card or indicated that they wanted union representation via an online portal. The workers will be members of CWA Local 9510 in Orange County, Calif., and Microsoft has recognized the union." While some of the above unions are department-specific, the WoWGG-CWA and the newly formed Overwatch 2 union spread across all departments, from artists to QA to game designers, level designers, etc. The OWGG-CWA will now join its fellow unions in negotiating their first contract, a process that the CWA previously accused Microsoft of dragging its feet on. Bargaining delays were one of the reasons the ZeniMax Workers United union members cited for overwhelmingly voting in favor of giving strike powers to their bargaining representatives. At the beginning of last month, the vote was announced, with 94% of members voting 'yes' to strike authorization. They have yet to announce if a strike will be called as negotiations continue. In a report from Kotaku, Blizzard test analyst Simon Hedrick cited the mass layoffs that started 2024 as to what drove him to seriously consider unionizing, and that "up to that moment I’d been really happy in what I was doing." "People were gone out of nowhere and there was nothing we could do about it," Hendrick said. "What I want to protect most here is the people." Unions can't prevent layoffs, but they can give those affected by them the best-case version of a worst-case scenario, and they can also improve the lives of workers in a number of other ways. Hopefully, the new Overwatch union and the other groups under Microsoft will be able to reach a deal sooner rather than later. "I'm organizing because I believe in this company, our teams, and the work we do together. Unionizing is about having a seat at the table so that we can work with leadership to build better, more sustainable working conditions," said senior test analyst and organizing committee member Jess Castillo in the previously mentioned press release. "Ultimately, when we're supported and thriving, we can deliver the best possible experiences to our players, which is what brought all of us here in the first place."