A former employee of Blizzard, Jason T. Hall, recently spoke out about the working conditions at the renowned game developer. He reports on his salary and the questionable practices he experienced during his time there.
What prompted Hall to speak out? On February 8, former employee Chris Sayers took to X/Twitter and revealed his personal experiences as a former employee of Blizzard.
In a series of tweets, he recounted the negative experiences he had during his time at the company and specifically criticized the HR department. Sayers described it as “openly evil and useless at every turn”.
After the revelations from Chris Sayers, another former employee of Blizzard, Jason T. Hall, also took the step to share his own experiences. Under the pseudonym “PirateSoftware,” Hall is now active as an indie developer. He too faced similar issues during his time at Blizzard.
Other former Blizzard employees have also become independent developers:
Another former employee says: Not an isolated case
What does Hall say about working at Blizzard? “Working at Blizzard was definitely one of the best and worst experiences I’ve had in my career,” Jason T. Hall wrote on X/Twitter. He emphasized that Sayers’ experiences were not an isolated case.
What were these “psycho games” supposed to be? Hall recounted a variety of questionable work practices, including an incident during his shift where employees were suddenly instructed to complete a “critical task.”
They were reportedly given a task sheet with around 30 steps and were asked to read all instructions thoroughly before starting the implementation. One of the work steps included the instruction to turn off the computer and leave the room.
After Hall finished reading the tasks, he followed the instruction to leave. He reported that the two colleagues who were the last to leave the room were subsequently fired. The remaining employees were assigned to the day shift. In response, Hall’s salary was cut by $0.50 per hour because there was no longer a “night crew differential.”
Thus, Blizzard apparently used an attention test, similar to what many might remember from their school days, to pit employees against each other.
What did Hall earn during his time at Blizzard? Hall revealed that he earned only $10.50 per hour during his time at Blizzard. This hourly wage was significantly below the average for workers in Southern California, making it difficult for him and many of his colleagues to make ends meet.
According to GTAI, the average hourly wage for unskilled workers is between $13 and $25.
He noted that even retail workers would earn more than he did at Blizzard. He compared it to the workers who bag grocery customers’ purchases at supermarkets – as they would supposedly earn $12 per hour already.
In addition to his revelations about working conditions at Blizzard, Jason T. Hall also streams on Twitch and has recently broken the hype train record multiple times. You can read more about this here: Former Blizzard employee breaks world record on Twitch twice in one week
