Double Fine Is Unionizing

Key Points:

• Double Fine, a Microsoft-owned game studio known for Psychonauts, has filed a petition to unionize with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), representing 42 part-time and full-time employees.
• The unionization effort aims to uphold commitments to creative excellence, diversity, inclusion, and worker quality of life, with workers requesting voluntary recognition from Microsoft and filing for NLRB election.
• CWA has been actively organizing Microsoft game studios despite layoffs and the expiration of previous neutrality agreements, seeking new agreements to protect workers’ rights.
• In 2025, CWA also launched a direct-join union, UVW-CWA, for laid-off or freelance game workers, which now has over 550 members and promotes a game workers’ bill of rights.
• While Microsoft has unionized thousands of workers across its Activision Blizzard and Zenimax studios, only a few contracts have been ratified, partly due to delays from the company.