Activision Blizzard has laid off at least a dozen contractors at Raven Software, according to a report from The Washington Post.
The report states that the layoffs are members of the quality assurance team, as part of the studio restructuring. The dozen or so employees that have been laid off make up roughly a third of the QA team. More contractors will be informed if they have also been laid off, current employees have told The Washinton Post. The Call of Duty developer is meeting with contractors to let them know if they are being promoted or terminated.
Employees that are laid off will have their last day January 28. Those who are being promoted to full time will receive an increase of $1.50 per hour in their wage. Raven Software co-created Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War with Treyarch.
“The majority of individuals who have had their meetings were fired,” one contractor who has been laid off told The Washington Post. “Everyone was told, ‘You did nothing wrong,’ after being given the bad news.”
Another, Evan Avillanoza, said that the project lead had not been informed of the layoffs. But Activision Blizzard did not respond to comment. Avillanoza was critical of Activision Blizzard, saying, “Our team is destroyed and absolutely no one is going to want to work even if they got promoted. I was looking to leave because of the reputation Activision has had lately and I don’t want to support the company any longer. … It’s an embarrassment working for Activision, in my opinion.”
the state of activision blizzard
Activision Blizzard had a lawsuit filed by the State of California against it earlier this year due to allegations of gender discrimination and harassment. The company hasn’t taken any decisive action in the months since. It has since been accused of employee intimidation and union busting. The heads of PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo have all condemned the actions of Activision Blizzard.
Featured Image Credit: Raven Software