Activision Blizzard: Mail about working conditions for QA testers contains important detail

The actual content of the mail revolves around the changes already confirmed by Activision Blizzard regarding the Working conditions of the QA testers. The company told Bloomberg that a total of. 1,100 QA testers into permanent positions. will be transitioning to permanent positions and with a minimum wage of 20 US dollars per hour should be paid. (Source: Bloomberg).

An internal email from Activision also states that the permanent hiring of QA testers is a result of Call of Duty’s new publishing strategy. The series Moves away from the annual release rhythm of the games. And moves to an “Always On” model, that is, the sevice-game idea already practiced by Warzone.

Permanent employment of QA testers: Only conditionally good news

Of course, permanent employment and even the proposed minimum wage are a great gain for the QA testers. In the video game industry, quality assurance jobs are usually entry-level and characterized by poor pay, a lot of work, and constant uncertainty about the length of temporary contracts. Towards the end of 2021, QA testers at Activision studio Raven Software therefore started the Formation of a trade union. Their goal was, among other things, to achieve permanent employment for QA testers at Raven.

According to Bloomberg, those same QA testers at Raven are. are excluded from the new scheme and are not among the 1,100 people who can now expect permanent employment. Activision justifies this exclusion with legal realities that come with the Raven QA testers’ union not yet being recognized by the state. Activision Blizzard refused to recognize the union.

To Kotaku, a spokeswoman for the American union CWA called this action an attempt, to prevent the formation of a union at Raven and to drive a wedge between the QA testers at Activision Blizzard. According to CWA, it is thanks to the QA testers at Raven who are fighting for better working conditions that the company is now giving in. (Source: Kotaku).

No new Call of Duty in 2023

According to well-known journalist Jason Schreier, publisher Activision is saying goodbye to Call of Duty for the year 2023 From the annual development cycle of the Call of Duty series, breaking a now 17-year-old tradition. (Source: Bloomberg). The article is paid content from Bloomberg, but Schreier also shares the key statements via Twitter:

Still to come this year the new Modern Warfare from developer Infinity Ward and a successor to Call of Duty: Warzone.. Following the previous scheme, it would be developer Treyarch’s turn again in 2023, whose games belong to the Black Ops series. According to Schreier, however, the corresponding game will not be released in 2023, but only in the following year. There is already an official statement from Activision. The publisher told Bloomberg:

“We have an exciting slate of premium and Free2Play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year and beyond. We look forward to revealing more details when the time is right.

Big changes at Activision

With this decision, Activision misses the 20th anniversary of the series. The first CoD appeared in 2003. the annual release of main games began only in 2005. according to Jason Schreier, however, the reason for this very radical step for Call of Duty is not a consequence of the planned acquisition by Microsoft. The decision to do so had been made independently and was due to Vanguard’s comparatively poor sales.

So CoD fans will have to deal with the same game for a full two years. Modern Warfare (2019) is not without controversy in the community, and the sequel coming out this year could make 2022 and 2023 a test of patience for some fans.