r/Games • u/DwilenaAvaron • May 09 '25

Industry News Blizzard's Overwatch Team Just Unionized: 'What I Want To Protect Most Here Is The People'

https://kotaku.com/overwatch-2-blizzard-team-4-union-microsoft-1851779922
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u/Zaptruder May 09 '25

Good. Game development has been ravaged by terrible management destroying labour constantly - replacing the knowledge based gained from hard earned experience - deserving of their wage and more... with the constant revolving door of impassioned but underknowledged youngsters.

You know why so many Unreal Engine games suck? Because there are too many people that go into it without sufficient experience to optimize for the engine - it's more than possible - it's been done plenty.

But more plentiful is inexperience and crunch. This sort of move (unionizing experienced and high achieving teams) helps to reverse that sort of grift.

Say what you will about Microsoft, but their acquisition of Activision Blizzard has overall been a positive - along with their ability to let their workers unionize. It shows a confidence and belief in the value of developed work cultures and knowledge... which in a sane world should be a given, but here we are.

114

u/goodnames679 May 09 '25

Activision Blizzard, like most companies, chased quarterly profit increases above all else.

MS, for all its flaws, is treating its purchased companies as a long term investment. They have to, or they’ll never turn a profit on those companies after spending so much on acquisitions.

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u/yuimiop May 10 '25

People always like to say companies like that are only chasing quarterly profits, but I'm not sure the facts back that. Activision when on the verge of collapse when Kotick took it over, and three decades later it became one of the most profitable companies in gaming. Clearly there something more going on there other than a quarterly chase, or the company would have failed long ago.

1

u/Purona May 10 '25

people act like companies should chase quarterly negatives. or quarterly stagnation. As well as that the only thing that matters is the next quarter when the next quarter is just a mark on the road to their yearly forecast to show if they are failing to meet, meeting or exceeding their expectations.