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Double Fine is unionizing

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
aftermath.site

Double Fine Is Unionizing

The Psychonauts developer is the latest Microsoft studio to unionize
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ouble 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."
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This isn't going to end well for them.
 
DonkeyPunchJr said:
If they want to protect their jobs, they should probably make games that have an audience.
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The audience not showing up for double fine games is an audience problem, not the devs. Doublefine has been stable in what they are and make since their inception. Microsoft knew what they were buying into, they're a kickstarter / indie weird studio, always been

This is not some fucking culture war shit you want to stir all the time
 
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They noticed Asha isnt afraid to bring in new blood with her AI buddies. Which means any laggards protected under Phil and Sarah are ripe for being gutted. Got to hurry up for some unionized job protection to keep the grift going. Anything to protect their own asses for bad jobs.

I would had got rid of them long time ago. In fact, I wouldnt had even bought them in the first place. Total waste of resources. Kiln and Keeper as their latest arthouse junk. MS could had funneled all the money spent on this studio since they bought them in 2019 to something better.

They rank so low on charts, in order to see them in the big master charts you have to sign in to see the full charts. If you dont they dont even show up because their CCU is so low.

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ReBurn said:
Unionizing to protect DEI in 2026 is a bold move.
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Hah. This reminds me of the employees at Starbucks were protesting and trying to unionize. Starbucks actually has experience as they got in trouble for retaliatory firing.
What did they do the next time? Shut the whole fucking store down. Easier to skirt wrongful firings.
 
Hollowpoint5557 said:
Alright, now their 47 unionized members can collectively bargain for the right to demand more time and money to make their next unplayable art house flop.
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Grifters will do anything for a buck. Typically, these people are scammers trying to get money from regular people selling them junk.

In this case, it's against their own employer.
 
Buggy Loop said:
The audience not showing up for double fine games is an audience problem, not the devs. Doublefine has been stable in what they are and make since their inception. Microsoft knew what they were buying into, they're a kickstarter / indie weird studio, always been

This is not some fucking culture war shit you want to stir all the time
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I didn't say anything about culture wars. Their last 2 games bombed big time with less than 200 peak players on Steam. They're not exactly in a position to start making demands of their parent company. And I don't think "don't blame us, blame the audience" will help their case much either.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Grifters will do anything for a buck. Typically, these people are scammers trying to get money from regular people selling them junk.

In this case, it's against their own employer.
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DoubleFine « junk »? Are you out of your fucking mind?

Not everything has to be Doom and space marine. DoubleFine being themselves and weird is perfectly fine.
 
Buggy Loop said:
The audience not showing up for double fine games is an audience problem, not the devs. Doublefine has been stable in what they are and make since their inception.
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It's an audience problem?

It's fine to make quirky things, but it's still a product, if people don't buy it, the studio can't keep existing, it's not charity.
 
I'm sad to say I've not even downloaded Kiln from PC Game Pass.
I used to like Double Fine. I was really pulling for them.
Keeper and Kiln are not what I was wanting from that studio.
I wanted sharp dialog and fun characters.

though Keeper was a trip of colors. So many colors. It has no dialog. :(
 
kpopSuperstar said:
It's an audience problem?

It's fine to make quirky things, but it's still a product, if people don't buy it, the studio can't keep existing, it's not charity.
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They survived on kickstarters for almost all their existence without any massive hits, no massive CCUs. They'll be fine. Their games are not big budget.
 
Buggy Loop said:
The audience not showing up for double fine games is an audience problem, not the devs. Doublefine has been stable in what they are and make since their inception. Microsoft knew what they were buying into, they're a kickstarter / indie weird studio, always been

This is not some fucking culture war shit you want to stir all the time
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StreetsofBeige said:
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Making shitty games that bomb is now an "audience" problem? The fuck did I just read?
 
DonkeyPunchJr said:
I didn't say anything about culture wars. Their last 2 games bombed big time with less than 200 peak players on Steam. They're not exactly in a position to start making demands of their parent company. And I don't think "don't blame us, blame the audience" will help their case much either.
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As crazy as it seems even Concord's peak CCU of about 700 is almost double Keeper and Kiln combined.

Double Fine games have such low appeal (and many of them dont even get good reviews either), that I had to sign into Steamdb to see games ranked at 200 peak CCU. If I dont it caps the list at a low 1,344.

Signed in, here's a section of games about 190-200 peak CCU. These are the kinds of games Kiln/Keeper contend with. But youll notice they still arent there despite being signed in. That's because if a game has CCU that is too low, Steamdb cant even track it. That's why you see the green CCU column around 50+ count games only.

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kpopSuperstar said:
It's an audience problem?

It's fine to make quirky things, but it's still a product, if people don't buy it, the studio can't keep existing, it's not charity.
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I don't think MS cares if DF games sell well, they are a Gamepass studio. As long as they keep making games that cost less than $5-$10 million, they are good for 5-6 more games.
 
Buggy Loop said:
They survived on kickstarters for almost all their existence without any massive hits, no massive CCUs. They'll be fine. Their games are not big budget.
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You're right. They'll be fine. If MS shuts them down, DF can just go back to Kickstarter.
 
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Hope they get what they're after... but good luck to them, they're going to need it. Union success is often a matter of leverage, and I... don't see how Double Fine has leverage over Microsoft. They aren't exactly raking in the dollars, or commanding headlines with their games for that matter, certainly not since Psychonauts 2 anyways.

I mean, this is the company that fired the folks who made Hifi Rush.
 
Meicyn said:
Hope they get what they're after... but good luck to them, they're going to need it. Union success is often a matter of leverage, and I... don't see how Double Fine has leverage over Microsoft. They aren't exactly raking in the dollars, or commanding headlines with their games for that matter, certainly not since Psychonauts 2 anyways.

I mean, this is the company that fired the folks who made Hifi Rush.
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Yeah. But Asha is here.
 
They shouldnt have been bought by Microsoft in the first place

Psychonauts 2 was their best game and it wasn't even funded by Microsoft, ffs
 
demigod said:
Making shitty games that bomb is now an "audience" problem? The fuck did I just read?
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Just consume product and be happy about next product...

Somehow this became the general idea around consumption of western entertainment media in the last 10 or so years. And strangely it didn't work. Go figure.
 
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Honestly, Microsoft should do a reverse Rare and just sell the studio to Nintendo. They would be way better off under their wing.
 
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