It’s not just Ubisoft that’s been on strike lately, but Microsoft as well (they own Activision Blizzard King now).
The Quality Assurance (QA) team at Activision Blizzard King has gone on strike because the publisher is forcing them back to work in the offices. This was reported by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). On October 25, the day of the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the QA team working on the game came together to ensure that those who needed to work from home could do so. During the protest, they claimed that Microsoft and Activision had failed to provide accommodations for employees with ADA-certified medical conditions (ADA in this case refers to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990).
While the QA team was on strike, more than 300 Activision employees signed a petition in October demanding a return to telecommuting. The Eden Prairie team was joined by employees in Texas and California. “Despite multiple requests from the union representing video game workers, Activision and Microsoft have been unable to articulate why they specifically insist that employees must work in the office, even those with serious medical conditions and doctor’s recommendations to work from home,” the CWA wrote in its statement.
Better ABK, the publisher’s union, also released a statement on Twitter, saying that employees had not been consulted. The publisher told Eurogamer that the return to the office has required an adjustment for some people and that negotiations are still ongoing, which seems to be a cop-out by Activision Blizzard. But the company is not alone in this: we have heard in the past that Rockstar and Ubisoft are also pushing for a return to the office to work on bigger games (in the case of the former, obviously because of Grand Theft Auto VI).
We have the feeling that management is trying to be a nuisance…
