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Raven Software restructures QA team amid unionization move

Members of Raven's QA team are being assigned to work alongside other departments at the studio.

January 25, 2022 9:55 AM

Ever since Activision Blizzard made the decision to not renew contracts for and layoff a dozen members of Raven Software’s QA team, a lot has happened at the studio currently working on Call of Duty: Warzone. Following a strike and then a move to officially unionize, members of the Raven Software QA team will now be reallocated to work in different departments at the studio. However, it’s currently unclear what implications this may have on the group’s attempt to unionize.

It was originally reported by Polygon's Nicole Carpenter that Raven Software studio head Brian Raffel sent an email to employees in which he announced that they will be doing some restructuring of the QA team. “Our QA colleagues will embed directly within various teams across the studio, including Animation, Art, Design, Audio, Production, and Engineering.” Following this report, Activision issued a statement on the matter to Polygon.

Raven Software studio head Brian Raffel emailed staff today regarding structural changes at the studio — embedding QA into different departments like art, design, and engineering. Unclear what this means for Raven’s QA union efforts. pic.twitter.com/sIk9jsGJQH
— Nicole Carpenter (@sweetpotatoes) January 25, 2022

It has not been clarified what exactly the change means for the GWA, the union recently formed by members of Raven Software’s QA team. Some people are already calling the move a disguised union-busting attempt, as it could undercut some of the foundation of that union.

Last week, Raven Software’s QA team announced their union, Game Workers Alliance, and requested official recognition from parent company Activision Blizzard. That recognition has still not been granted, and the entire situation may have just gotten a bit more complicated. We’ll be sure to update this article with any potential updates to the story.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_

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January 25, 2022 9:55 AM

Donovan Erskine posted a new article, Raven Software restructures QA team amid unionization move
- ColoradoCNC
  
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  January 25, 2022 10:00 AM
  
  Integrating QA with development is always a great idea, and the projects I worked on where that was the case definitely turned out better overall, but this just seems like a blatant attempt by Raven to try to make the issue disappear.
- u sir name
  
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  January 25, 2022 10:06 AM
  
  Raven Software have been around for 32 years, have done some fantastic work over those 32 years, and I am interested to see how unionization works for them. They aren't the first NA developer to unionize but certainly the highest profile developer and I expect it to have far more positives from it than negatives.