Annie Barrett

CWA members at Microsoft-owned Activision Publishing have voted to strike if necessary to win a fair union contract! cwa-union.org/news/release...

The designers, artists, writers, producers, and workers behind Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Duel Masters, D&D Beyond, and countless other games are uniting in solidarity to form a union with CWA!

Today marks the public launch of the Ubisoft Workers of Montreal (UWM) campaign, with a first action: a petition to preserve hybrid work. Every Ubisoft Montreal employee is invited to sign the petition and every supporter encouraged to reach out to their network to encourage them to sign!

2026 in videogame development

Today, 268 dedicated video game workers lost their livelihoods as XBOX continues to put profits ahead of the workers who are the heart and soul of the platform's games. CWA does not expect today's layoffs to impact union-represented workers.

Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft. Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1

Never be a scab. You'll betray your fellow workers and the company STILL won't respect you. It's a lose-lose.

Closing out the rally, @nershly.bsky.social beautifully speaks about her experience being fired by Rockstar and how they try to use fear.

Guaranteed remote and hybrid protections. Salary increases. Recall rights to open positions 14 months after a layoff anywhere in Blizzard. Massive congratulations to the units at Blizzard for securing these rights (and more) in their historic contract! A win for one is a win for all ✊

The 40 hour work week. Compensation for overtime. The right to organize and strike. These were not inherent rights given to all in the US and Canada. They were fought for by the courageous workers who came before us. On Labor Day, we remember how far we've come, as well as our fight left ahead.

I had a chance to speak with our local news org about the layoffs affecting the Austin area. Part of the city's culture is gaming, and it's important we protect it.

So, in the SAG-AFTRA video game strike of 2016--not the most recent one--SAG-AFTRA attempted to codify residuals to voice actors for games. The game companies--predictably--fought back against that. What was interesting, though, was the behind-the-scenes talk of *why* they fought back. <cont'd>

With each layoff, real people are affected and real lives are turned upside down with uncertainty. As long as this continues, developers will never feel safe, and I'm proud to lend my voice to this cause and speak about the true impact these decisions cause.

Developers like Ruben care about making games players can enjoy for years and improving with every update and future release. You can support devs like Ruben by using the link in our bio to #SaveGameWorkers.

When we fight, we win! ✊

👀

we marched in the heat, we marched in the rain. we'll march in wind, we'll march in ice. we'll always be ready to remind Xbox and Microsoft leadership that we make the games and the money, while all they seem to make is mistakes. they can't reinvent a business they don't understand. #SaveOurDevs

Tempetatures over 100 F? Not enough to stop Austin devs from showing up today! #SaveOurDevs

Today, game workers and allies are taking action at Save Our Devs actions across the US and Canada to call out layoffs and corporate greed in the industry and to demand fair first contracts across Microsoft’s gaming studios.

We've seen some questions pop up around layoffs: "well, if they were laid off, didn't that mean they weren't doing a good job? Maybe they deserved it." And on its face, that sounds logical and legitimate. Because the opposite would just be pure cruelty, right? ...Right? ...So here's the thing.

Here's this same guy, Matt Karsh, who was personally responsible for shutting down some of the game studios Embracer killed over the last few years, saying HE QUIT BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T FIRE *ENOUGH* GAME DEVELOPERS FOR HIS LIKING www.gamedeveloper.com/business/sab...

Great games don't get made under constant threat of layoffs. www.thegamer.com/xbox-former-...

Welcome to the game industry, Scabby the labor dispute rat. We didn't want it to come to this, but here we all are. We love you and we're happy to have you on our side. May you shame many more greedy conglomerates with us.🐀

It really does trip me out that this is Xbox's key janglin' era because sis really saw that giant rat and people talking about it and decided 'lets breadcrumb them som TES 6 info!'

Without game developers, there are no video games. Join us across nine cities next Tuesday, August 18th, as we rally for the rights of workers in the games industry. All allies welcome - when we fight boss battles together, WE WIN! ✊ Details: actionnetwork.org/event_campai...

workers also planted flags outside the office, one for each laid-off dev. the union sent me a video of all of them, and the number is truly striking. imagine just... ignoring that

“The Elder Scrolls VI: Laid Off” Brought to you by the developers XBOX laid off last month.

Pay no attention to the rat. Instead, let me tell you how big and great Elder Scrolls 6 is. Please stop looking at the rat. Please.

SCABBY FANART @bethesdaunion.bsky.social

Quick someone make a mod 😂

SCABBY THE RAT HAS SPAWNED INTO THE LEVEL

NEW: CWA union members have inflated a giant rat and deployed a wall of red flags representing laid off Xbox workers outside the Bethesda office in Rockville. The protest was timed to coincide with a visit from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who is apparently at the studio today.

Really heartening to see both game workers and players wake up to the realities of what collective action can do to change things. The tide is turning. Everyone, including you, deserves a union.

UVW-CWA's hardship fund has raised over 100k through the bundle with @itch.io and has had a real impact on the lives of laid off developers. You can help by purchasing the bundle, and make a long-term difference by joining UVW-CWA. Check out the bundle here: itch.io/b/3802/game-...

Special shoutout to the players who have been supporting and spreading the word about the itch bundle to support the Game Workers Hardship Fund! Your solidarity means the world to us, and player-dev solidarity is a critical component for driving positive change in the artform we love. We love you! 💪

On July 6th, Microsoft laid off 50% of id Software. Among these cuts were folks like John "Jebus" Roberts, a principal engine programmer on the id Tech engine. For 15 years, Jebus supported the games you love. #SaveGameWorkers by telling Microsoft to end their cycles of layoffs: shorturl.at/5ruBE

No devs, no games. We are the ones that make the games, and we will fight for every developer hit by these layoffs.

Bethesda Games Studios’ Montreal workers are being treated especially poorly by XBOX and we won’t stand for it. Here are the details. If this upsets you let Microsoft know: feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/ide...

Some photographs from the 'Save Our Devs' rallies in Rockville, Montreal, Dallas, Austin, and Redmond—held yesterday in protest of the latest mass layoffs at Xbox. I'm told by a union organiser that over 150 employees turned out in Rockville alone.

Game workers and allies are taking action at #SaveOurDevs rallies! Earlier this month, Microsoft reported that they would be laying off thousands of workers across the company – impacting hundreds of union jobs. An injury to one video game worker is an injury to all.

Austin's rain couldn't keep us from raising our voices against Microsoft's Xbox layoffs! current and laid-off union members from @bethesdaunion.bsky.social, @zenimaxworkers.bsky.social, and ZSSU were joined by members of @cwaunion.bsky.social and @videogameworkers.bsky.social for today's rally!

I was proud to attend the ZeniMax protest this afternoon, at their headquarters in Rockville. I stand with the workers who were layed off, calling on Microsoft to do the right thing: reverse the layoffs and support your game developers. #SaveOurDevs #OneBGS #ZeniMaxWorkersUnited #RockvilleMD

What's this?! Another amazing "Save Our Devs" mod from one of our fans?! 🥹 Thank you so much @greenfoxel.bsky.social! It's been a crazy week but seeing things like this helps push us forward.

First Skyrim, now Fallout 4, @elianora.bsky.social continues to support us with her fantastic creations. Thank you yet again! This week's rallies are going to be historic and we couldn't do it without fans like these! 💛💙

I'm hardly an impartial observer (and am even name-checked in the article), but this article does a good job summing up the utter senselessness of the recent carnage at ZeniMax Online. Again, my heart goes out to everyone impacted, it is just so cruel and unnecessary www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/th...

Got tagged into a thread about how the community can support laid off devs, so I thought I'd put together a quick infographic. I made this company agnostic, since, well, games industry has been doing this a lot :( More Elder Scrolls specific notes in thread below.

I promised I'd get the mod up before bed! :) Unified Front - A Dev Support Mod is out now on Bethnet and @nexusmods.com creations.bethesda.net/en/skyrim/de... www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecia... @bethesdaunion.bsky.social @zosunited.bsky.social

Wage theft comes in many forms, and once you start seeing it, it’s everywhere. Layoff after ship? Wage theft. Not getting a bonus that’s in your contract? Wage theft. Doing Lead level work but still only a Senior? Wage theft. Misclassified contractor? Wage theft.

What you’re describing actually exists: it’s called a co-op, and it could very well be the future of the industry! Want to learn how to make one or get involved in setting the standards for the games industry of the future? Join the UVW Co-Op Committee!

Among the layoffs was character artist Christiane Meister — a 27-year veteran of Bethesda and (as far as I can tell) one of the longest tenured women in games, period. She worked on Argonians + Khajiit in TES3, horses in TES4 and TES5, Fallout creatures, and more. (cont'd)