Bethesda and ZeniMax union workers staged a coordinated march across six cities yesterday to protest Xbox's layoffs

Hundreds of unionised game developers took to the streets outside Microsoft and Xbox studio locations yesterday in the largest coordinated labour action in the games industry's history. The "Save Our Devs" march, organised under the OneBGS banner, took place simultaneously at six locations across four states and two countries in direct response to the elimination of 440 union-represented positions across Bethesda and ZeniMax.

The details:

• Marches took place at 12:30 PM ET on July 15 at ZeniMax offices in Rockville, Maryland; Austin and Dallas, Texas; and Montreal, Canada. United Videogame Workers-CWA also held a concurrent rally at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington, and OneBGS confirmed a further demonstration outside Obsidian Entertainment in Irvine, California.
• The 440 cuts span multiple studios: 35 positions at Bethesda Game Studios US, at least 12 more in Montreal, 22 at BGS Austin, and over 200 at ZeniMax Online Studios alone. The positions eliminated were programmers, artists, designers, and QA testers, not management.
• OneBGS is demanding that Microsoft engage in Effects Bargaining, a legal obligation triggered when a company cuts union jobs, and is pushing for preferential job transfers that would require Microsoft to place affected workers into open roles across Xbox and the wider company before hiring externally. Further demands include stronger severance packages, extended healthcare coverage, and recall rights.
• Microsoft has been accused of stalling on union negotiations. OneBGS stated publicly that the company has been unresponsive since the July 6 restructuring announcement.
• Inside the studios, employees set up small memorial displays in common areas for laid-off colleagues. HR instructed workers to take them down.