Blizzard employees feel underpaid. Developers are even struggling to make a living and feel compelled to work overtime.
Blizzard is part of Activision Blizzard and is responsible for many of the world’s largest and most well-known games, including World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, or Diablo. Yet despite the success and even a record year in revenue, employees are dissatisfied with their pay. Although there have likely been many raises, they only help to a limited extent.
Who is speaking? The report on Bloomberg News is by Jason Schreier. He previously mainly worked for the magazine Kotaku and was already known for his exposés in many gaming companies. He has numerous contacts with employees of the big gaming giants and has uncovered bigger problems in many cases. Employees of many gaming companies seem to trust him and share their concerns with him.
Wages have risen, but way too little
What has come out now? Blizzard employees are apparently quite dissatisfied with their pay in many cases. An employee recently circulated a list in the company asking colleagues to enter their salaries. It came out that there were quite a number of raises, but they were rather small.
In 2019, there was an internal survey at Blizzard to find out how satisfied employees were with their pay. The result was comparatively devastating, as many employees felt significantly undervalued and underpaid – something Blizzard wanted to address. Even in 2018, it was noted that Blizzard pays too little.
Last month, there was apparently the mentioned wave of promotions and wage increases, but these fell far short of employees’ expectations. Many increases were reportedly in the area of under 10%.
This is not only significantly less than many employees expected, but it also leads to other problems. As Blizzard employees currently seem to have to work fewer overtime hours, which is generally a good thing, some employees are earning only minimally or not at all more than before, despite the increased pay.
Blizzard is working on the problem, wants to invest more
What does Blizzard say about this? Jessica Taylor, who speaks for Blizzard on this matter, also commented to Bloomberg on this topic. She said:
Our goal has always been to ensure that we pay our employees fairly and in line with the competition. We continuously review our compensation philosophy to value the talent of our best employees and keep ourselves competitive in the industry. All of this serves the goal of better rewarding our top employees and investing more in them.
She then added that this year’s pay increases for the “Best Performers” were 20% higher than in previous years and that “our salary investments are consistent with previous years.”
Major differences cause frustration: For years, there has been ongoing criticism of employee pay at Blizzard. While some Activision Blizzard executives, such as CEO Bobby Kotick, take home $40 million a year, some employees skip lunch to be able to pay their rent. Especially in the customer support and game testing areas, wages are said to be at the lower end.
This report adds to a series of reports that things have been looking quite bleak at Blizzard for several years.
