Call of duty game testers are being treated like second-class citizens?
Based on a recent report from Kotaku, which conducted anonymous interviews with Treyarch employees, call of duty game testers are allegedly being treated nothing short of inhumanly. During social events game testers are only allowed to attend for 20' or so, aren't allowed to consume any alcohol and talking to any game developer could get them fired. When lunch is catered, they are told that the food downstairs is for the development team, not for them; sometimes, they’re allowed to scrounge for leftovers an hour later, once the non-testing staff have gotten to eat. When they get to work, they have to park their cars in a different parking lot than other employees, one that’s further away from the office.
Mind you, apparently game testers at Treyarch have to endure this for 70 hours per week and 13$ / hour. For the past two Call of Duties, management has made everybody's work harder by cancelling and restarting development, which results in even longer hours for employees.
What has broken a lot of people in Treyarch however, is how these long hours aren't even appreciated. In January of this year, news outlets reported that video game publisher Activision had given a cash and stock bonus worth up to $15 million to its new chief financial officer, Dennis Durkin. Did the game testers receive even a symbolic $15 bonus? Of course not. They didn't "qualify". Well, i guess decision making like cancel and restart development mid-cycle gets rewarded handsomly over there.
When reached for a comment by Kotaku, Activision of course didn't make any manager available for interviews or even a comment, instead offering this broadly written statement:
Black Ops 4 represents three years of hard work, creativity, and passion from hundreds of talented individuals across Treyarch, Activision studios and publishing teams, as well as agency partners around the world. It represents the culmination of a wide variety of development initiatives, the best of which comprise the game that our fans are playing today.
The teams who created this game are diverse and widespread. It’s important to us that everyone working on the game, or any of our projects, is treated with respect and that their contributions are appreciated. If there is ever an instance where this standard is not met, we work to remedy it immediately. We constantly strive to provide a rewarding and fun development environment for everyone.
Everyone at Treyarch is extremely proud of Black Ops 4. We love bringing games to life, and we always want to do the best work of our careers. We realize this is only made possible through the varied perspectives and contributions from every individual working on the team.
⏰TL;DR:
Activision / Treyarch talks about "hard work", but reports about them mistreating their employees aparently aren't even worth a single comment, or more than 13$ / hour for that matter. On the other hand, expert decisions like restarting game development mid-cycle are worth millions in bonuses apparently.