Activision Blizzard employees plan walkout following Raven Software layoffs

Employees at Raven Software, a studio owned by Activision Blizzard, are planning a walkout Monday following layoffs in the quality assurance team.

On Friday, Activision Blizzard laid off  at least a dozen Raven Software contractors  that worked on titles like  Call of Duty: Warzone. In response, many current Raven Software employees and contractors plan to stop working in protest. PDT. The Washington Post  spoke with an alleged quality assurance tester at Raven Software that wished to remain anonymous about the walkout.

“It feels like Activision’s toxic culture is starting to bleed into Raven,” they said  via The Washington Post. “The people who were let go seem to have been chosen completely at random, and the rest of us have survivor’s guilt because we know our teammates deserve to still be here. We’re all just incredibly heartbroken.”

Walkouts at Activision Blizzard are steadily becoming a regular practice  in light of reports of its toxic work environment. A  petition calling for CEO Bobby Kotick’s resignation  by staff came shortly after.

“Several of those who were let go recently relocated to Wisconsin in anticipation of the return to in-person work,” Raven Software staff said in a statement  via The Washington Post. “They did so without relocation assistance from Raven, due to reassurances from the studio that their workload was consistent.”

Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier received a statement from Activision Blizzard about the situation.

“We are converting approximately 500 temporary workers to full-time employees in the coming months,” Activision Blizzard said  via Bloomberg. “Unfortunately, as part of this change, we also have notified 20 temporary workers across studios that their contracts would not be extended.”

Following reports of harmful workplace practices, heads of  Playstation,  Xbox  and even  Nintendo  spoke out about what was happening at Activision Blizzard.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.