Yesterday, more than 60 employees of Raven Software organized a walk to protest parent company Activision lay off about a third of the company’s quality assurance team. Today, that walk has entered its second day and spread to the QA departments of other Activision studios including Blizzard.
The extension of the walkway was announced by Acitvision staff group ABetterABK via Twitter:
Today, workers from Raven QA are leaving for the second day in a row. They are joined by workers from QATX, QAMN, and Blizzard QA. These workers are standing in solidarity with the statement Raven QA released yesterday. They are using hashtags on social media #WeAreRaven
– ABetterABK ABK Alliance Workers (@ABetterABK) December 7, 2021
“Today workers from Raven QA are going out for the second day in a row,” reads the tweet. “They are joined by workers from QATX, QAMN and Blizzard QA. These workers are standing in solidarity with the statement Raven QA made yesterday. They are using the social media hashtag #WeAreRaven.”
Blizzard Senior Test Analyst, Jessica Gonzalez Blizzard QA Participation Confirmed, tweeting, “We’re leaving because our work is priceless and it’s unacceptable for a million dollar company to toy with workers’ livelihoods for better numbers in the future.” Q4.”
Raven Software is primarily responsible for Call Of Duty: Warzone. Warzone is getting a big update tomorrow, with a new Pacific map that will follow up from the recent launch of Call Of Duty: Vanguard. Activision, and many major publishers, have a habit of making QA staff redundant as soon as new games come out.
In their statement yesterday, ABetterABK noted that many of the laid-off employees moved to Wisconsin for roles “without ABK’s assistance, plunging them into a financial and housing crisis within an area of limited options in this industry.”
This is the third employee walk at an Activision Blizzard studio this year, with the first in july after the State of California sued Activision Blizzard for alleged workplace harassment and defamation, and a second time just last month following other allegations caused employees to request the dismissal of CEO Bobby Kotick.
