Call of Duty: Warzone is one of the biggest games in the world. However, it's also one of the worst in terms of quality. Although many continue to play Activision's free-to-play shooter, it's been plagued with bugs for a while, especially in recent months. While many continue to blame Raven Software for the problems, it appears that the larger issue lies with Activision and how the publishing giant continues to mistreat those that are part of the game's quality assurance team.
Is Activision just going to continue ignoring the QA team?
Earlier in December, several QA testers decided to walk out and protest Activision's decision to lay off members of Raven's QA team despite earlier promises of higher pay. More than two weeks and a Christmas weekend later, Activision or Raven Software still haven't listened to the demands made by members of the QA team that went on strike. In the meantime, Warzone's quality has suffered, albeit those who stayed behind have soldiered on to release patches to try and keep the game afloat.
According to various reports, the main reason for the protest was that the contractual QA testers worked and moved to Madison, Wisconsin, under the promise of full-time employment. Unfortunately, this did not come true for most employees.
We have been striking for close to 17 days now with no response to our demand: those laid off from Raven QA must be reinstated. Soon we will be starting our paid holiday vacation (which was fought for by workers organizing).
— ABetterABK 💙 ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) December 22, 2021
At the moment, Activision still has yet to issue a response to the accusations and the strike. In the meantime, the Activision Blizzard King Workers Alliance has set up a Gofundme for the contractual QA testers who celebrated the holidays without a job.
Interestingly, Activision continues to let issues like this go on and fester when it's already dealing with several legal battles. Activision Blizzard already lost its slot at The Game Awards 2021 due to the controversies. Furthermore, both Phil Spencer (Xbox) and Jim Ryan (PlayStation) are reconsidering their respective company's association with the video game publisher.
