Raven Software Holds a Walkout After Layoffs last Week
After Friday’s layoffs, developers from Call of Duty: Warzone support software Raven Software staged a walkout to protest. Kotaku workers stated in a statement that they only want to see all employees in the quality assurance department, even those who were laid off last week.
The group stated that they participated in the demonstration with the studio’s continued success in mind. The studio’s day-to-day operation is dependent on the Raven QA department. The studio’s health is at risk if high-performing testers are terminated in an era of profit and consistent work.
After repeated assurances by leadership that there were “positive departmental changes” in the pipeline for QA, layoffs were made. This was used to explain why no QA member received any promotion or raises scheduled for March. Twelve employees were fired, even though they had relocated to Wisconsin to be at the Middleton headquarters of the studio when the team began working again in person.
Activision, the publisher, sent a statement to Kotaku stating that it would be hiring around 500 temporary workers in the next months. However, 20 people were forced to leave in the middle of all this.
“Activision Publishing increases its investment in its operations and development resources. In the next few months, we will convert approximately 500 temporary employees to full-time workers. We have also notified 20 studio workers that their contracts will not be extended as part of this change.”
Activision Blizzard has been in disarray since the publication of a lawsuit about the company’s “frat boy” culture. As more stories continue to come from the company, companies such as Sony and Microsoft have been considering how they will move forward with Activision Blizzard’s relationship.
Uppercut: Uppercut has learned that Activison’s Austin studio transferred 32 QA testers to work in Call of Duty Warzone’s Pacific Map due to the “incredible amount of testing required” for the project. This was the responsibility of Raven Software until about two weeks ago when Activision Austin employees were informed of their reassignment. Uppercut received the following email.
