Multiple former and current Activision Blizzard employees have stated that the company has remained silent over requests to talk with leadership, despite claims from the developer that it is openly working with staff.
In an exclusive Inverse article, former Activision Blizzard employee and founder of the ABK Workers Alliance Jessica Gonzalez, alongside two anonymous employees, has said the company hasn’t engaged with workers.
One of the quality assurance (QA) staff at Raven Software said that “QA has not been involved in any of these discussions,” adding that the “request to meet with leadership has been met with radio silence.”
This contrasts a statement from earlier in the year, in which Activision Blizzard said it “is deeply committed to the wellbeing of all of our teams, including our QA workforce. Raven leadership has engaged in dialogue with its staff to hear concerns and explain the company’s overall investment in development resources.”
In response to this, another anonymous employee said that “Activision’s silence is something we expected, but were nevertheless disappointed to see. The company continues to publicly state how it wants to develop a clear line of communication between management and employees while actively going against its claims of transparency behind closed doors.
“[Activision Blizzard] is not looking to change its toxic ways and improve the company culture anytime soon,” they added.
Gonzalez highlighted the challenges faced by QA departments at Activision and across the industry, stating that they are treated as temporary staff and thus don’t have the same benefits as those working full-time.
“We need to allow the community to be a part of that process, and open ourselves up to showing how the sausage is made. Employees are tired of being appeased with words – your actions need to line up,” says Gonzalez.
An ABK Workers Alliance strike fund is currently set up on GoFundMe to support those striking that are losing out on income, which can be found here. The fund has currently raised around £267,000 ($365,755 USD), with the money raised to “be used first and foremost to assist with wages during the ongoing strike, as well as assisting with relocation of any Raven QA.”
CEO of Activision Blizzard Bobby Kotick has been reported as the second highest-paid CEO in gaming recently, earning an hourly average of around £56,000.
In other news, an Overwatch 2 Lego set has been put on hold as the toy company says it is reviewing its partnership with Activision Blizzard.
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