Double Fine Is Unionizing – Aftermath

Double Fine, the Microsoft-owned studio behind Psychonauts and, more recently, experimental fare like Keeper and Kiln, is set to unionize, per a petition filed to the National Labor Relations Board. 

The petition, filed May 7, says that like other Microsoft games division studios that have unionized to date, Double Fine workers are making their unionization push in conjunction with Communications Workers of America (CWA). The union will include all “regular part-time and full-time employees”—a total of 42. 

“On May 7, the workers at Microsoft studio Double Fine Productions announced their decision to form a union with CWA to preserve and extend the studio’s commitments to creative excellence, diversity and inclusion, and worker quality of life,” CWA said in a statement to Aftermath. “In tandem with requesting voluntary recognition from the company, workers have also filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to secure union representation. We appreciate that Microsoft has taken a neutral approach and agreed not to interfere in any way with worker’s rights to organize unions.”

CWA has continued to organize Microsoft workers even as the company has laid off thousands, and neutrality agreements—bargained back in 2022 prior to the completion of Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard—have lapsed. The hope is to negotiate a new neutrality agreement in the near future, Juniper Dowell, a senior QA tester and union steward at Zenimax Bethesda Softworks, told Aftermath at GDC in March. 

In 2025, CWA also helped establish a direct-join union, UVW-CWA, for games workers who’ve been laid off or who aren’t employed at any specific studio. It now has over 550 members, Kaitlin “KB” Bonfiglio, a writer and designer who serves as the direct-join union’s secretary, told Aftermath in March. At GDC, the union also proposed a game workers’ bill of rights, a set of protections workers hope to make universal across studios.  

Within Microsoft, meanwhile, CWA has unionized thousands of workers across multiple Activision Blizzard and Zenimax studios, though—at least in part due to Microsoft dragging its feet—only a few have successfully ratified contracts so far.

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