Close-to 200 developers working on the Overwatch series have formed a union. 

In a release on its website, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) revealed that this bargaining unit – The Overwatch Gamemakers Guild-CWA – would be a wall-to-wall union, meaning it emcompasses staff from all tiers of staff and all departments. So far there's workers from design, production, engineering, art, sound and QA in the unit. 

“The massive layoffs in the video game industry, and at my own studio, became one of the first reasons I started to learn about how to organise to create a healthier workplace for everyone,” VFX artist and organising committee member Frank Le Cocq said. 

“When we began our union efforts, it was empowering to know that our coworkers next door at World of Warcraft had already successfully gone through the process.”

Senior test analyst 2 and organising committee member Foster Elmendorf added: “After a long history of layoffs, crunch, and subpar working conditions in the global video game industry, my coworkers and I are thrilled to be joining the broader union effort to organise our industry for the better, which has been long overdue. Workers organising themselves and striving for better conditions as a group allows us to present initiatives that would not only improve our workplace but video games overall.”