It might be a new year, but it is the same drama happening over at Activision Blizzard. The company has been in trouble for several months now, between striking employees, a lawsuit from the state of California for having a toxic and discriminatory workplace culture, and industry partners like Xbox and Nintendo all reportedly rethinking their relationship with the company.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Raven Software’s employees, who had been striking since December 6 in support of the QA employees who had been laid off by Activision Blizzard during a “studio restructuring,” had been ignored by the company’s leadership for nearly a month. Raven Software workers, in a message sent directly to the Activision Blizzard leadership team as well as released publicly via the ABK Worker’s Alliance’s Twitter account, said that they had not had “any communication from leadership about [their] singular demand: all members of the Raven QA department must be offered full time positions, including those who were let go.”
The tactic of applying public pressure to the company seems to have worked. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, a spokesperson for Activision Blizzard has put out a statement to address the situation. “Raven leadership has engaged in dialogue with its staff to hear concerns and explain the company’s overall investment in development resources,” the statement read.
The statement did not say that they would be meeting the demand regarding bringing the 12 employees back into full-time positions but did mention that the company had given them an extended notice period and would be “working directly with those that need relocation assistance.”
No word yet on if this would be enough to satisfy the remaining employees at Raven Software, which is an internal studio within Activision Blizzard. It is worth mentioning that this situation came about because Activision Blizzard promised the freelance QA workers a full-time position shortly before letting them go. As of this writing, this remains an ongoing story and could change at any time.
