Activision Blizzard Lays Off QA Contractors for Call of Duty Developer Raven Software

Peter_Brosdahl

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Activision Blizzard has laid off over a dozen quality assurance contractors for Call of Duty developer Raven Software. The in-house studio has worked on numerous COD titles such as Vanguard, Black Ops Cold War, and Warzone. The restructuring was a complete surprise, as the contractors had been promised raises for months. Instead, they were called into meetings and told they were being let go. No reason was given, but they were told they did nothing wrong.



I am gutted right now. My friends in QA at Raven were promised, for months, that Activision was working towards a pay restructure to increase their wages.Today, one by one, valuable members of the team were called into meetings and told they were being let go.— Austin O’Brien (@eyyohbee)...

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On one hand - yeah that sucks for those people.

On the other - it's a business, people get hired when needed, and laid off when not -- all the time, across many industries.

This isn't necessarily some vindicative action. Activision only has has responsibility to exactly one group of people - the shareholders. And if your abilities and position don't have direct and immediate impact on that group of people, you aren't going to be around long. If Raven didn't have something in the near term that is ready for QA to actively work on, I'd expect them to get laid off too.
 
So, IOWs, the wokeness parade has backfired, eh? 😂
 
Vanguard didn't sell as expected, no wonder since even kotaku said it was too woke.
 
The Vanguard reviews are brutally bad, so the QA team gets thrown under the bus. Smooth.

But honestly, they were contractors and they should be used to living day to day. I've dealt with many IT contractors and they get used up and tossed like kleenex on a daily basis.
 
I don't play these games because they're not really my style but I have to totally agree with Dan on that one.
 
What I want to know is this: "Why the **** is there any of that **** in a game about a military conflict?"
There are only two types of things now. Ones that have that, and the ones that will have that soon. Now that video games are thoroughly f-ed, they are apparently going after tabletop games now.
 
There are only two types of things now. Ones that have that, and the ones that will have that soon. Now that video games are thoroughly f-ed, they are apparently going after tabletop games now.
They can try. Tabletop is a whole different area where the players and DM/GM have all the control over their own content. I don't see how they can really alter the books and game manuals to be woke.
 
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They can try. Tabletop is a whole different area where the players and DM/GM have all the control over their own content. I don't see how they can really alter the books and game manuals to be woke.
They are already altering the books, and releasing new ones with guidelines on how to be 'inclusive'
Organizations disavowing their own fictional universe, or worse their players.
And so on.
 
That is such bs. Gms that want high levels of inclusive elements will build it in. Wtf.
 
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