[UPDATE: A clarification on the number of employees surveyed has been added. Previously, the report claimed over half of Blizzard employees were surveyed but has since been corrected to significantly less than half.]
The games industry as a whole has been in the news quite a lot in 2020 and not all for positive reasons. Many hidden truths have finally surfaced regarding developers dealing with crunch, revelations of sexual harassment within Ubisoft, and toxic online communities. In addition to the many unfortunate realities that are coming to light, wage disparity has been a major topic that has also been discussed, now with Blizzard employees discussing this issue within the company.
First revealed by Bloomberg, an obtained document circulated within the company's own internal Slack message boards that was anonymously contributed to by many employees. The document revealed the wages of all those who participated, focusing on jobs and related salaries. This was the result of an ongoing issue within the company, despite Activision-Blizzard having continued success this year, an internal 2019 survey revealed that the company's employees (significantly less than half, according to an update in the report) were not happy with their current compensation.
The issue was compounded by the massive layoffs the company had early last year, which resulted in the remaining employees taking on extra responsibilities. In response to the survey, Blizzard conducted its own study which resulted in pay increases. Several employees were baffled by the tempered response as the document indicated that many increases in pay were much less than expected. Several employees revealed that increases were less than 50¢ per hour with little opportunity for overtime work.
The topic of proper compensation within the games industry is nothing new, recently Activision-Blizzard CEO, Bobby Kotick, was criticized by the companies own shareholders for his exuberant pay. The issue indicated that despite the resistance from shareholders, including when performance-related goals had not been met, Kotick has had several opportunities for significant equity increases. This led to Activision-Blizzard releasing a statement indicating that "Over 90% of Mr. Kotick’s proxy reported compensation is performance-based, and he has delivered exceptional value for Activision Blizzard’s stockholders."
Meanwhile, Covid-19 has impacted the companies plans for several of its esports-focused games. The Hearthstone Madrid Masters Tournament has been refocused to online only rather then a venue. Meanwhile Blizzard is preparing for the launch of the upcoming Shadowlands expansion to World of Warcraft.
Source: Bloomberg Quint