Double Fine Productions, the studio that made Psychonauts and other beloved indie games, is forming a union. Workers are organizing with the Communications Workers of America, the same group that's been helping tech and game industry employees unionize across the country.
This matters because Double Fine isn't some struggling indie anymore. Microsoft acquired the studio back in 2019, making this another example of workers at major tech companies pushing for union representation. It follows similar moves at other game studios under big tech umbrellas.
The game industry has been dealing with brutal crunch culture, layoffs, and burnout for years. Unions give workers more leverage to negotiate on those issues. For AI folks, it's worth watching because similar labor organizing conversations are happening in tech more broadly.
Double Fine has always had a reputation as one of the more employee-friendly game studios, which makes this interesting. Even at companies with decent reputations, workers are deciding they want formal protections and collective bargaining power.
The CWA has been on a roll lately, helping organize workers at multiple game studios and tech companies. They're becoming the go-to union for this sector, which could mean we'll see more of these announcements in the coming months.
