Call of Duty: Warzone devs say "Activision tried so hard to stop our union" ahead of final vote

Activision Blizzard lawsuit
(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

As a group of developers at Raven Software, the Activision Blizzard subsidiary best known these days for its work on Call of Duty: Warzone, begin to send in their votes for unionization, members of the team are sharing their experiences in the months-long push for union recognition.

"Finally being able to vote yes made all of the hard work we’ve put in over these past five months worth it. The fact that Activision tried so hard to stop our union every step of the way makes it clear that a union is necessary at this company," a developer who chose to remain anonymous told the Washington Post.

According to the Washington Post, leadership at Raven has suggested that unionization could negatively affect promotions and benefits, or impede game development. An internal email reportedly sent to employees reportedly contained a graphic saying "please vote no."

Shortly after staff petitioned the NLRB, Raven split QA workers into different parts of the studio, as part of what the company called an "embedded tester model." Employees tell the Washington Post that their duties have become inconsistent since the move. One says "we have more to do than we can ever possibly accomplish in a day, and other days we’re sitting around waiting to hear what we should work on. We aren’t all on the same page anymore."

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.