Microsoft game workers call out company over Israeli military ties
“We think it’s our responsibility, as tech workers, to raise the alarm, and to ensure that our technologies are used to make the voices of the oppressed heard, and not facilitate their demise.”
Workers at Microsoft-owned Arkane Lyon (makers of Deathloop and the forthcoming Marvel’s Blade) have written an open letter to management, pressing the company to terminate all “ongoing or future contracts with Israeli Occupation Forces” in order to “ensure the future of the Palestinian society.”
As best I can tell, this is the first instance of members of Microsoft’s vast gaming division calling the company to action over its work with the Israeli military.
It follows employee protests from other divisions and a scathing press report earlier this year that said the company’s cloud and AI tech had been used to facilitate attacks on Palestinians. The broader context, of course, is Israel’s ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry (and that follows the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack that killed 1,200 Israelis, per media reports, and took 250 people hostage).
In the letter, the Arkane workers state:
“We think that Microsoft has no place being accomplice of a genocide, and as Microsoft employees, we don’t want to be part of this sinister project for Gaza.
“We think it’s our responsibility, as tech workers, to raise the alarm, and to ensure that our technologies are used to make the voices of the oppressed heard, and not facilitate their demise.”
In April, the BDS movement called for a public boycott of Microsoft’s gaming division to pressure the company to change policy.
That boycott is cited in the letter:
“In a more direct manner, we think this could very well affect our life directly, by reducing the audience for our games, thus directly compromising the viability of Xbox Games, and, in the long run, our very own jobs.”
In May, Microsoft said an investigation "found no evidence to date that Microsoft’s Azure and AI technologies have been used to target or harm people in the conflict in Gaza."
In July, Microsoft shareholders began pressuring Microsoft to conduct a new report about the wartime use of its technology by Israeli forces.
And in August, The Guardian reported that Microsoft’s cloud tech was being used to surveil Palestinians in preparation for attacks.
The Arkane Lyon letter comes from the studio’s section in the French union STJV (Le Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo). It’s unclear how many members of Arkane are in the STJV. Union rules stipulate that it’d have to involve at least two; the studio has well over 100 workers.
(Arkane’s workforce is separately unionized under Printemps écologique, which has a work council that speaks for studio employees and that has issued statements on behalf of the full studio. For example, in June 2024, it criticized layoffs at Xbox, including the shutdown of its sister studio in the U.S.: “We strongly doubt the sincerity, authenticity, and long-term vision of Microsoft's management,” that union stated at the time.)
Microsoft has not commented on the letter, nor did the Arkane Lyon SJTV section reply to a request for comment.
The workers said their demands matched those of a Microsoft employee group called No Azure For Apartheid. One of those demands: “Uphold free speech and ensure the protection of pro-Palestinian speech and the safety of allies employees, as well as any actions, fundraising initiatives on internal company platforms.”