Employees within Blizzard's Platform & Technology division have voted in favor of forming a union

Activision Blizzard's Platform and Technology department has taken steps to unionize under the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

More than 400 employees from this department, including those working on Battle.net as well as designers, engineers, QA testers, and localization staff, voted today to unionize, following in the footsteps of multiple other sections of Blizzard. Microsoft is reported to have acknowledged this union's formation.

According to GameDeveloper, committee members Daniel Weltz, Alex Kohn, and Timothy Biley chose to pursue unionization in response to colleagues leaving due to insufficient pay or job cuts. They expressed that "workplaces will now have to offer certain things to remain competitive to workers."

"The establishment of more unions raises workplace standards overall," the group commented, adding that "the industry often views the individuals creating video games as easily replaceable... we are optimistic that the presence of more unions will help change this perspective."

"Our culture is built on our people, and losing them is not an option," Weltz emphasized.

Earlier, Blizzard's story and franchise development teams also decided to unionize, joining nearly 3,000 Microsoft-affiliated employees under the CWA, including Raven Software workers in Wisconsin who previously lodged a complaint against the studio and parent companies, Activision and Microsoft, for alleged negotiation refusal.

Recently, "93 employees and former employees" of Build A Rocket Boy signed an open letter accusing the studio's leadership of "persistent disrespect and mistreatment." The letter accompanied news that the Game Workers branch of the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union is pursuing legal actions due to improper handling of layoffs at the company.