Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
Raven Software QA workers coming together to fight for their rights as employees and ultimately forming a union is undoubtedly one of the biggest gaming stories of the year. However, it didn’t come without great resistance, as parent company Activision Blizzard actively pushed back against the idea of the union being established. However, it appears that Activision Blizzard is now ready to enter negotiations surrounding the union with its employees.
An internal email from Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick was shared as an open letter on the company website, and confirms its intentions to recognize Raven Software’s union.
This is a major step in the process, as Activision Blizzard had previously been critical of the union’s formation. ABetterABK commented on the news, stating that the parent company’s “major investments” into its QA team “were done as concessions from mounting employee pressure to try to stop unionization from occurring.” ABetterABK was key in bringing awareness to internal issues at the developer and getting the cause off the ground.
This comes roughly a week after Activision Blizzard’s soon-to-be parent company Microsoft stated that it plans to recognize the union once the deal goes through. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the situation to see what comes of the negotiations between Activision Blizzard and Raven Software.