Several "Call of Duty" developers protested against Raven Software regarding the unjust treatment of its quality assurance team.
In relation to this, Activision, who owns Raven Software, supported the said protest.
'Call of Duty' Developers Protest
In a public statement released by Raven employees, it stated that 12 of Raven Software's Quality Assurance testers were let go in "good standing," which means they had neither underperformed nor committed any offenses that may have resulted in their dismissal.
In addition, the statement detailed that the majority of those who were not let go on December 3 is still unsure about the status of their employment, per Ars Technica.
"These personnel cuts come after five weeks of overtime, and before an anticipated end of year crunch. The QA team, which at this point in time mainly works on "Call of Duty: Warzone" so far has been reduced by just over 30 percent," the public document furthered.
Furthermore, the public statement called "Raven Walkout" shared that the 12 QA team members are considered by their colleagues to be essential to the company's everyday functioning.
Before the said termination, Raven Software management promised the "Call of Duty" developers several times that beneficial departmental improvements were all on the way. However, the said promises did not occur.
In addition, it is also cited as the reason why no team members got the regular promotions or increases that were supposed to be implemented by March 2021.
To further emphasize, Raven Software workers told The Washington Post that the management would meet with contractors from Friday, December 3 through Wednesday, December 8 to notify employees whether they will be promoted or fired on January 28.
For this reason, the Raven QA team as well as other employees will conduct a protest with a single objective as their response to the occurrences last Friday.
With regards to the said objective, they stated that every employee of the QA team, including those who were let go last Friday, must be provided full-time opportunities.
The ultimate purpose of the "Call of Duty" developers protest is to assure Raven's continuous growth as a studio and to maintain a healthy work environment for all employees.
Activision Blizzard Promotes 500 Temporary Workers
For those who do not know, Activision bought Raven Software last 1997, per Polygon.
As mentioned, Raven Software is mostly working on "Call of Duty: Warzone."
In response to the said protest, a spokesperson for Activision Blizzard told Polygon that they are promoting 500 temporary workers to full-time employees.
"We are converting approximately 500 temporary workers to full-time employees in the coming months. Unfortunately, as part of this change, we also have notified 20 temporary workers across studios that their contracts would not be extended," the spokesperson furthered.
The Better ABK Workers Alliance, which conducted two protests against Activision Blizzard's employee treatment, commended the company for upgrading all temporary employees at fellow "Call of Duty" developers to full-time roles.
