Activision Austin QA moved to Warzone two weeks before Raven Layoffs

According to a source close to Uppercut, a group of 32 quality assurance testers from Activision Austin were moved to work on Call of Duty Warzone two weeks before the layoffs in Raven Software’s QA department because of the “incredible scale of testing needed for the Warzone Pacific map.”

Raven Software is the studio primarily in charge of QA testing for Warzone. Despite moving 32 QA testers over from Vanguard to help with the testing for Warzone’s Pacific map, Raven still laid off about 30% of its QA testing staff on Friday Dec. 3, and the others are unsure what their future with the company looks like, according to a Google doc posted by protesting Raven employees on Monday. According to this document, 12 of Raven’s QA testers were told their contracts will be terminated on January 28. These employees were let go “in good standing,” meaning they had committed no fireable offense.

“Several of those who were let go recently relocated to Wisconsin in anticipation of the return to in person work,” the Raven doc reads. “They did so without relocation assistance from Raven, due to reassurances from the studio that their workload was consistent. Call of Duty: Warzone, which recently announced the release of a new map and integration with the Call of Duty: Vanguard title, earns $5.2 million per day.”

These layoffs come two weeks after a group of QA testers for Activision Austin received an email from Andrew Lichtsinn, associate QA project lead for Activision QA TX, on Friday, Nov. 19 informing them that they would be moving over from Vanguard testing to working on Warzone’s new Pacific map.

“Hello everyone, we have received word that due to the incredible scale of testing needed for the Warzone Pacific map and the smaller amount of testing required for Vanguard’s post launch life cycle, all testers who recently transferred to the publisher vanguard project from Zeus [Cold War] will be moved to the publisher kronos [Warzone] project starting on monday 11/29/21,” the email read.

Today Raven QA, as a department, is demonstrating in protest of the layoffs on Friday. Raven QA's team is essential to the studio's day-to-day operations.

— ABetterABK 💙 ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) December 6, 2021

The QA department of Raven Software are now demonstrating in protest of the layoffs. Those protesting have issued a set of demands to their management: “In response to the events of Friday, the Raven QA team and other members of Raven’s staff will be walking out with a singular demand: Every member of the QA team, including those terminated on Friday, must be offered full time positions.” As of time of writing, there has been no response to these demands.

“The termination of high-performing testers, while workload and profits are soaring, is an unacceptable action by the company and contradicts Raven’s goal of being an exemplary workplace in our industry,” the ABetterABK account tweeted on Monday. The workers will reportedly be continuing their protest until their demands are met.