450 Diablo devs fear for their future. „None of us should have to live with that constant worry that we might be let go at the drop of a hat”
Some developers of the Diablo series have voted to form a labor union. The reason is job insecurity in the face of massive layoffs at Microsoft.
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It seems that a significant portion of Blizzard's developers are not happy with the current situation at Microsoft. 450 people working on the Diablo series voted in favor of creating a trade union. This happened shortly after the Redmond giant laid off over 9000 employees to replace some of them with AI.
Developers are tired of living in fear
The information was conveyed in a press release by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). There are over 3 thousand other Microsoft employees in this organization. Some of them work, among others, on World of Warcraft and the Overwatch series.
The statement said that the unit to which the Diablo developers belong, "is one of the largest professional unions in the studio owned by Microsoft." The press release also has comments from a few developers.
With every subsequent round of mass layoffs, I've witnessed the dread in my coworkers grow stronger because it feels like no amount of hard work is enough to protect us. [...] We are ready to begin fighting for real change alongside our Diablo colleagues - Kelly Yeo, Diablo IV producer.
I grew up playing Diablo, and I feel lucky that I get to work at Blizzard on a game that’s very special to me and the gaming community. But passion can’t protect us from job instability. Our union allows us to focus on making magical experiences for our players instead of worrying about the unstable job industry - Skye Hoefling, senior software engineer.
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. 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 - Ryan Littleon, designer.
It's worth noting that in the middle of this month, the narrative department at Blizzard Entertainment studio has also established a trade union. Before them, the same was done by a group of employees from Raven Software. Thanks to this, after 3 years of fighting, they managed to negotiate, among other things, a 10 percent salary increase over two years. Time will show whether the newly formed trade union will also have a successful conclusion.
At this moment, neither Blizzard nor Microsoft have issued any comment on this matter. Meanwhile, Diablo 4 players comment sarcastically, wondering what these 450 developers are doing because - in their opinion - the effects of such a large team's work are not visible in the game. Some developers are certainly working on Diablo Immortal, while others may have been delegated to work on the next installment of the series.
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Author: Martin Bukowski
Graduate of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Gdańsk University of Technology, who decided to dedicate his life to video games. In his childhood, he would get lost in the Gothic's Valley of Mines and "grind for gold" in League of Legends. Twenty years later, games still entertain him just as much. Today, he considers the Persona series and soulslike titles from From Software as his favorite games. He avoids consoles, and a special place in his heart is reserved for PC. In his spare time, he works as a translator, is creating his first game, or spends time watching movies and series (mainly animated ones).
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