Don't overestimate what unions do. MS is still perfectly in their right to close down the studio and fire all it's staff, if they had a mind to.

It's just a matter of doing it properly. Severance Pay, Pensions and such. Which I honestly don't think Microsoft cares too much about.

I mean, if they can avoid paying it, they would. But they do actually have a legitimate business side. And severance pay for the entire Blizzard staff would likely still cost them less than what they had to pay Kotick to get rid of him.