Frustration and anger regarding Activision Blizzard continues to grow as recent calls for CEO Bobby Kotick to resign from over 1,800 employees have gone unheard. It seems like each week has resulted in a new issue regarding Activision Blizzard internal problems. This week won't be different. Reports are coming out of Raven Software Friday evening that the Call of Duty developer's Quality Assurance division is being hit by targeted layoffs.
The news comes from Raven Software associate community manager Austin O'Brien, who is asking for developers from other studios to post any QA job listings they might currently have available. O'Brien says that "valuable members" of Raven Software's QA department are being called into meetings and let go, one by one.
O'Brien and several others describe the situation as unfair, infuriating, heartbreaking, and "bull****." O'Brien goes into detail about why this situation created by Activision Blizzard is so unconscionable. To start, O'Brien says that many of these developers moved to Raven Software's location in Madison, Wisconsin specifically for these jobs. As of January 28, they'll have to relocate to find work. Further, O'Brien explains that Activision up until recently had been actively "working towards" restructuring the pay for Raven's QA department. This was a promise made multiple months ago, only for Activision Blizzard to now decide to lay off these workers instead of rewarding them for their labor.
Raven Software gameplay engineer Tyler Trombley characterizes Raven's QA department as "some of the best QA I have ever worked with." Raven QA tester Molly Weaver explains that there are "lots of amazing, highly competent testers getting laid off," and further that these workers are being fired after "YEARS of crunch after crunch after crunch." The quality of the developers within Raven's QA that are being laid off is a consistent point being made within the online conversation.
Raven Software is one of the main developers on Call of Duty: Warzone, just as it co-developed Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War with Treyarch. Needless to say, Raven is a major part of Activision Blizzard's current ongoing live service efforts. Its QA team is actively involved in ongoing projects and the remaining members of the team are certain to be required to make up for the work of their now-fired co-workers.
Why Activision Blizzard is laying off these developers isn't clear, just as much of the company's layoffs over recent years have been questioned. What is clear is that many developers at Raven Software see these layoffs as unnecessary and even cruel. That, unfortunately, seems to be a consistent thought associated with Activision Blizzard these days.