Image via Raven Software

Raven Software head Brian Raffel announced in an electronic mail sent to staff on Mon that the studio'southward QA staff would be embedded into diverse departments throughout the company, such equally animation, design, and technology. This news comes days after Raven QA workers voted to unionize in the midst of a lengthy strike.

Polygon reporter Nicole Carpenter obtained a re-create of the electronic mail and shared it on Twitter for public viewing.

Co-ordinate to multiple game developers, embedding QA staff into various departments is a adequately standard manufacture practice. "It gets them closer to the balance of their teammates," said one verified developer on ResetEra. "It is how QA should really office."

That said, the timing of this organizational shift has raised enough of eyebrows. Many game manufacture employees and community members accept accused Raven Software leadership of attempting to disrupt the formation and approval of a QA union. Jessica Gonzalez, a old Blizzard employee who founded the ABK Workers Alliance — a coalition of Activision-Blizzard workers calling for organizational change within the company — posited that the shift could be intended to separate unionizing workers from each other to make the grouping less probable to successfully unionize.

Valentine Powell, a Blizzard engineer, besides voiced concern that the newly announced shift has "the potential to dilute [employees'] ability to unionize cohesively." Carpenter noted that successful unionization efforts require workers to prove a "community of interest," and stated that embedding Raven QA workers into different departments could make fulfilling that criteria a lilliputian more than complicated.

Raven Software QA workers announced their intention to form a union, dubbed the Game Workers Alliance (GWA) on January 21. Activision-Blizzard has nevertheless to recognize the marriage, simply a argument by the visitor declared that it is "advisedly reviewing the request for voluntary recognition from the CWA."