Without resuming EVERYTHING that had happened at both Activision and Blizzard, as a conglomerate, Activision Blizzard practically had many fires that they started themselves and one in particular could just not take as long as it did.

But finally a promise was fulfilled (obviously was not on plans but public relationship said otherwise) and Activision Blizzards has granted over 1,100 temporary game testers a fulltime job assurance complete with benefit.

By the end of the year and early 2022, Activision Blizzard confirmed that some temporary workers and contractors were selected as not being renewed or offered direct jobs, contrary to a pre-agreement that an official job would have been with time.

This prompted yet another strike and the strong notion that it was time that employees unionized and with today’s news, seems that a front was won but the “war” continues probably until Mcirosoft completes the buyout of the conglomerate (if approved).

The well-known impacted area was the Quality Assurance of Raven Software, one of the developers of Call Of Duty Warzone and the main reason many believe on why the COD Battle Royale is on it's current state.

This is the email that was sent internally (Via The Verge):

Email to Activision Publishing US employees from Josh Taub, Activision Publishing’s chief operating officer

From: Josh Taub

Subject Line: Update to QA

Team,

During the last two years, Call of Duty has expanded and evolved. Our development cycles have gone from an annual release to an “always on” model. In response to greater engagement, we’ve increased our live services business across all platforms. Our offerings now encompass season passes, operators, and the awesome content available in our stores. We’ve also grown our workforce and support across our studios, along with exciting new plans on mobile.

In light of these changes, and as we look to our ambitious plans for the future, we are further refining how our development teams work together. 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!

I’m pleased to announce that we are converting all US-based temporary and contingent QA workers to full time employees (FTEs). We are increasing their hourly rate to a minimum of $20/hr and providing access to full company benefits, and they will be eligible to participate in the company’s bonus program.

This change follows the conversion of nearly 500 temporary and contingent workers to permanent full-time employees at Activision Publishing’s studios, and other ongoing conversions that have taken place in the past few months.

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. This is a long-standing studio and industry practice that will give us more flexibility and capacity to support the business needs and enable our internal teams to focus on the results that most impact our business.

Together, we will change the game and take Call of Duty to the next level.

-Josh

Email to Blizzard employees from Mike Ybarra, the head of Blizzard

From: Mike Ybarra

Subject: Delivering Blizzard Quality: QA Full Time Conversions

Hi Blizzard,

We’ve shared with many of you the exciting experiences we’re bringing to players in 2022 and beyond. There’s so much happening across our teams – and this is just the beginning of our renewed focus in putting our teams and players at the forefront of everything we do.

Our ability to deliver great games at the “Blizzard quality” level our players expect is vital to ensuring we exceed player expectations. Over the last 6 months, I’ve had the opportunity to listen and engage with members of our QA team and we’ve had several meetings where I outlined my philosophy about contract/full-time roles. I want to thank everyone who helped educate me and expressed their views on how we can make Blizzard the best player-focused game studio. We all know QA is integral to our success in ensuring the best possible gameplay experiences.

Some time ago QA leadership started shifting their approach to staffing the team, converting more temporary and contract workers (TEAs) to full-time employees (FTEs), and using partners to support short-term spikes in workload. Today, this shift in approach is culminating in a conversion of all of the remaining U.S.-based TEAs/contractors in QA – more than 90 people across Irvine, Austin and Albany – to FTEs. We’re also increasing the minimum hourly rate for QA to $20/hour, and they will be eligible for our bonus program and increased benefits.

We have amazing QA talent, and I’m very happy to make this change so that we can focus and deliver for players around the globe. If you have any questions, please reach out to me, your HR partner or Wladia Summers.

Thank you for your feedback and helping us make this change.

Thank you,

Mike