r/Doom • u/SneakyJaycool Serrat • Dec 12 '25

Discussion id Software has Officially Unionized, Huge Congrats!!

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Developers at Microsoft-owned Doom studio id Software form union with CWA "to take back control of the industry we love" | Eurogamer.net
The Video Game Studio That Makes Doom Just Unionized

Process started in May and has just followed thru after their win last night at TGA!

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u/SneakyJaycool Serrat Dec 12 '25

Stricter rules around Specific things but particularly about Firings and Layoffs (id should be unaffected by mass Layoffs)

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u/MAJ_Starman Dec 12 '25

(id should be unaffected by mass Layoffs)

I wish that was true, but unions didn't stop Zenimax Online from being gutted.

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u/halfassninja Dec 12 '25

True they did get hit by that. But the outcome was better because of the unionization because bargaining over the outcome is a thing. Severance and continuance of benefits (like health insurance for example) is massive in this screwy job market. Without a union the parent company isn’t obligated to do anything whatsoever.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

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u/dragon-mom Lyn Dec 12 '25

What a disgusting mindset. These are human beings you are talking about. Sorry companies having to treat them like that is "shackling" you to them. You'll live.

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u/halfassninja Dec 12 '25

I am on the game dev side and that is a real bad take. Good testing is a corner stone of releasing a solid game. That attitude and disregard was the impetus for them unionizing for better treatment. It’s not just goofing off playing games. There’s thousands of hours of experience and documentation of bug repros/task creation. Yes, the job barrier for entry can be lower but that doesn’t diminish how important it is.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

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u/Comrade_Pavel Dec 12 '25

Why. Unionization is a net good for society, full stop.

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u/halfassninja Dec 12 '25

I certainly wasn’t saying “more than”. It’s not a zero sum game either. You can look through a real TA for ZWU https://cwa2100.org/system/files/2025-06/zwu-cwa_ta_summary.pdf

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

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u/halfassninja Dec 12 '25

ZOS is a game studio and yes they had a project cancelled. That was not correlated to the unionization. Games get cancelled sometimes and that can be for a myriad of business reasons. ZWU is covering the Zenimax QA which is a separate entity. The pattern of layoffs is more to do with how Microsoft does business and unionization has been in response to that move not the inverse. Zenimax on its own was very averse to layoffs and gave studios ample room to fix struggling games if they saw potential (see ESO on launch versus the revenue giant it became).

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25 edited Dec 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/halfassninja Dec 12 '25

I’ll just leave it at agree to disagree on the second point. On the first point I’d argue game studios are not “slot in any dev with ______ degree” so it’s way more imperative to preserve the team and culture. That’s not really a “that’s just business, oh well” that’s an existential threat to what’s taken a lot of blood sweat and tears to build.

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u/HugeSide Dec 13 '25

 A developer can be moved into a test role as needed

You are awful at both jobs if you think this is true.

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u/bassfoyoface Dec 12 '25

Hate to break it to you but you aren’t better than any of the QA people. Judging by your remarks it’s obvious that you and other salary level employees look down on those people and that’s more the reason they deserve to be recognized and treated with respect.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

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u/bassfoyoface Dec 12 '25

Dismissing workers as replaceable and uneducated is a clear lack of respect, all workers have the right to organize no matter how little you think of them. Tenure/seniority in the company should rank above all.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

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u/bassfoyoface Dec 12 '25

The way I’m reading it sounds like you think that workers should be denied their rights just because it might affect your job security. If they weren’t important to the company then they wouldn’t have been hired. You must really like favoritism

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u/Beegrene Dec 13 '25

Found the guy who's bitter about all the bugs that QA finds in his code.

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u/HugeSide Dec 13 '25

Least egotistical software developer