Another Microsoft-owned game studio unionized today. This one was Doom: The Dark Ages developer id Software, which has spent the last decade purely dedicated to letting players rip and tear through the legions of hell. But the Doom Slayer has turned his gaze to another foe: the exploitation of labor and unfair extraction of wealth.
In an announcement, members of Local 6215 of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) declared that 165 of the studio’s 185 employees had signed union cards of affirmed their desire for a union via an online portal. Microsoft has recognized the union under a neutrality agreement signed by the CWA with id Software parent company Zenimax.
“The wall-to-wall organizing effort at id Software was much needed; it’s incredibly important that developers across the industry unite to push back on all the unilateral workplace changes that are being handed down from industry executives,” said CWA Local 6215 organizing committee member and id Software Producer Andrew Willis.
Lead services programmer Chris Hays added that a key benefit the union aims to secure is a fair remote policy for employees. “Remote work isn’t a perk,” he said. “It’s a necessity for our health, our families, and our access needs. RTO policies should not be handed down from executives with no consideration for accessibility or our well-being.”
Union members shared more details on their goals in an interview with Aftermath. There programmer Hays revealed that fear of studio closures, mass layoffs, and oppressive implementation of generative AI fueled workers to take collective action.
The group began rallying after Bethesda shut down a slew of studios including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks (the latter of which would be revived by Krafton in January 2025). Hays said the news was “a wakeup call for a lot of people,” later noting that the game industry’s fate has fallen in the hands of “Ivy League MBAs” with little experience making—or even playing—video games.
“People decided that it was time that we took our future into our own hands,”
id workers are siccing the Doom Slayer on Microsoft’s AI mandates
CWA Local 6215 members have set three targets in their contract negotiations with Microsoft: the aforementioned remote work policy, benefits like childcare, and guardrails for the use of AI technology (Aftermath doesn’t specify if this refers to generative AI or other machine-learning AI tools.)
Hays didn’t come out completely in opposition of the technology—he said some of its current applications are “good” and offered no examples—but Microsoft’s AI mandates aren’t being implemented “in a careful enough way to have it be beneficial.”
The AI protections procured by unionizing Zenimax workers in 2024 played a key role in shaping the policies the id Software workers are looking for.
Industry professionals might be curious if id Software workers will join their peers at Arkane who wrote an open letter condemning Microsoft’s technical support for Israeli intelligence operations in its invasion of Gaza. Hays said the union will only know if it decides to make that a sticking point after members fill out the bargaining survey.
But he did inform Aftermath of his own position. “I can say for myself personally that I want no part in [Israel’s] usage of Microsoft tools and the deals between Israel and Microsoft”
