Id Software Joins Union

Even id Software, the legendary team that gave birth to some of the most solid milestones in the world of video games and FPS, has decided to join a union to protect its employees from the current complicated situation in the video game industry.

The announcement came last Friday and concerns 165 employees of the software house who received membership in the Communications Workers of America. "The total organizing effort was absolutely necessary at id Software - producer Andrew Willis stated in a press release - it is incredibly important for developers in the industry to unionize to push back against all unilateral changes to working conditions that are imposed by executives. Unionizing for us developers is the way to regain control of the industry we love and ensure it produces high-quality content from high-quality workers who have benefits and longevity beyond quarterly profits."

Id Software was founded in 1991 by industry heavyweights like John Carmack, John Romero, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack: it revolutionized the market starting with Wolfenstein 3D in 1992, followed by DOOM in 1993, and then continued with Quake and Rage. In 2009, the software house passed into the hands of Bethesda Zenimax and then under Microsoft when the home of TES was acquired by the Redmond company in 2021.

The team's most recent work is DOOM: The Dark Ages, for which we remind you of our Review. The game was nominated for several awards during The Game Awards last week, emerging victorious in the Innovation in Accessibility category.

Precisely during the event hosted by Geoff Keighley, a number of union demonstrators held a picket outside the theater to protest against the waves of layoffs that have decimated numerous development teams in recent years: id Software is just the latest among Microsoft teams seeking protection since the acquisition of Activision Blizzard King led to a drastic downsizing of the company's workforce.