An insider report on the development of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 casts a negative light on Treyarch and Activision Blizzard. Changes in plans led to massive overtime. The “Blackout” mode was supposedly put together in just 9 months. The campaign was scrapped, and the release was moved up.
Where does the information come from? It comes from the US site Kotaku. There, discussions were held with 11 former or current employees who wish to remain anonymous to avoid jeopardizing their careers.
A lengthy insider report has emerged, causing a stir similar to the report on the development of Anthem. Some parallels are noticeable.
They were determined to release before Red Dead Redemption 2
This is why Black Ops 4 had no campaign: Black Ops 4 was released without a single-player campaign and instead featured a 100-player battle royale mode. However, this was not the plan and came about chaotically.
According to sources, a campaign was actually planned and already in progress. The team worked overtime to finish the first missions before Christmas 2017 and present them to Activision.
But the plans were overturned:
- First, there was to be a 2vs2 campaign in a post-apocalyptic world. You would play with a friend against 2 other people – or bots would take on the roles of the others. But there were technical issues.
- Then a normal single-player campaign was planned – but there was not enough time for that.
- Then the campaign was completely scrapped – and they needed a replacement, as fans expected another mode alongside PvP and zombies.
Blackout developed in just 9 months
This is why Blackout came: As a replacement, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 then assembled the Blackout mode in just 9 months.
Time was pressing because they wanted to release before Red Dead Redemption 2. Initially, the release of Black Ops 4 was planned for November 2018. To get ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2, they moved it up to October.
The Blackout mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 led to even more overtime. They chose Blackout to capitalize on the success of Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
This is the impact of the intense crunch: The cancellation of the campaign and the development of a new mode “from scratch” caused significant time pressure and massive overtime for the team.
It is said
- People began to drink to cope.
- Panic attacks and burnouts occurred.
- Some lost their passion for what they were doing.
Who was hit the hardest? The report shows that especially the “quality assurance” testers suffered during the compressed development of the shooter. These are paid game testers and bug hunters.
They are contract workers, so they are not permanent employees and have to face several disadvantages.
It is said that testers were treated like second-class citizens at Call of Duty: Black Ops 4:
- Testers work separately from the other developers and have to stay on the second floor, while most developers are on the first.
- They are said not to speak with other developers.
- They are generally isolated, do not participate in surveys about job satisfaction, and feel unheard.
This is the problem: Testers worked 70 hours a week.
But they do not receive bonuses because they are contract workers. Their base pay is around $13 per hour.
Therefore, many were hit hard when it was announced in January 2019 that the new Chief Financial Officer of Activision Blizzard was granted a bonus of $15 million.
This was particularly nasty: At the worst times, 2 shifts of testers worked 12 hours a day. From 10 AM to 10 PM and from 10 PM to 10 AM.
What upset the testers was that the air conditioning was turned off as soon as all developers left in the evening. The night shift had to work in steamy, unpleasant temperatures, as the servers continue to give off heat.
When complaints were made, it was only said, “The air conditioning is broken,” even though it had been running all day and was always turned off at the same time.
The report then describes in detail how these working conditions affected the QA testers.
Additionally, developers are quoted stating that the quality of the game suffers when QA testers work so isolated from the team.
