Several dozen Activision Blizzard employees are still on strike, claiming that management has failed to meet their demands for the reinstatement of 12 contractors laid off by Activision Blizzard-owned Raven Software in December. The majority of the contractors are quality assurance testers for Call of Duty games.
Multiple current employees told The Washington Post that Raven Software employees tasked with checking for bugs and glitches in “Call of Duty: Warzone” have been on strike for over seven weeks. Their absence comes at a time when a number of “Warzone” players, ranging from professional streamers to casual gamers, have vented on Reddit and social media about the game’s current state, citing game-breaking bugs and other issues that severely impede gameplay.
Over 60 Raven Software employees went on strike on December 6 in protest of their parent company’s decision to lay off 12 of the studio’s quality assurance testers. Since being sued in late July for sexual harassment and misconduct claims, Activision Blizzard has had three work stoppages in the last six months.
At least 200 Activision Blizzard employees across the company’s various studios went on strike on Dec. 7. Workers have demanded that the company reverse the December layoffs and that all Raven quality assurance contractors be hired full-time as part of the current strike, which has no set end date, according to those involved.
According to the employees, Activision Blizzard has not responded to their demands, despite sending a letter to employees the same week the strike began advising them to “consider the consequences” of signing union authorization cards. Employees are pushing for a majority of signed cards in order to hold a vote on forming a union at the company. Meanwhile, over a dozen Minnesota-based employees were asked to work more closely with Raven developers on “Warzone,” which some mistook for Activision recruiting “scabs,” or strikebreakers, according to current employees.
Activision sued EngineOwning, a German company that sells Call of Duty cheats, on January 4th, asking the court to halt the sale of software that allowed players to cheat in-game.
Several Twitch streamers and YouTubers have recently posted videos expressing their dissatisfaction with glitches and the state of “Warzone.”
Some of the players who spoke with The Post said they were aware of the ongoing strike and expressed solidarity with the workers, while others had not.
While “Warzone” has had bugs since its March 2020 launch, Shaylor Bemis, a forklift driver and Call of Duty player from Ohio, said the game has recently been plagued with more noticeable issues like an in-game cosmetic that turned players invisible, the game freezing on console systems and requiring players to restart, and guns that won’t work after players pick them up.
When asked about the problems, Activision Blizzard’s spokesperson referred to the company’s previous statement about Raven Software, as well as a pair of recent posts about the state of work on Call of Duty games.
The official “Call of Duty” account tweeted on Jan. 13 that teams were working on bugs and glitches in “Vanguard,” “Warzone,” and “Modern Warfare,” and that it was aware of the invisible skins in “Warzone.” Raven Software tweeted on January 11th about a midseason update for “Vanguard,” “Warzone,” and “Modern Warfare.”
