Activision Blizzard says all US-based QA testers will become full-time employees
Activision Blizzard has announced that all of its US-based QA testers will become full-time employees.
The company also revealed that the employees would receive an hourly wage increase to a minimum of $20 per hour.
A statement from Activision Blizzard reads: “Today we announced the conversion of all US-based temporary and contingent QA team members at Activision Publishing and Blizzard – nearly 1,100 people in total – to permanent full-time employees starting on July 1.”
An internal email from COO Joshua Taub reads: “QA is, and continues to be, critical to our development success. We have amazing QA teams in place that work hard to ensure our players have the best possible gaming experiences: thank you.”
Taub’s email continues: “As Call of Duty evolves, we anticipate periods where the workload will fluctuate and exceed our expanded team’s bandwidth. with this in mind, we’re adding extra support for our team from external partners.”
The announcement follows news in January that quality assurance testers at Call of Duty Warzone developer Raven Software had voted to unionise.
The 34-strong group, called the Game Workers Alliance, officially asked parent company, Activision Blizzard, to recognise the union, which, should it be recognised, would be the first-ever at a major North American game development studio.
A Communication Workers of America spokesperson told Polygon at the time that 78% of eligible QA workers voted to support unionisation.
Microsoft recently said that it wouldn’t object if Activision recognised the efforts to form a union, which have largely gained momentum in the wake of Activision Blizzard’s ongoing scandals.
In an open letter posted in March, Activision Blizzard employees asked CEO Satya Nadella whether
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