Raven QA Union Agrees Contract to Curb Crunch, Win Pay & WFH Rights

Raven Software’s QA team has ratified a first union contract with Microsoft and Activision Blizzard that targets crunch, guarantees raises, clarifies career paths, and locks in permanent work-from-home options for most of the 19 Wisconsin-based testers. Coming ahead of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, the agreement is a milestone for game industry labor and a practical blueprint for healthier development cycles.

If you’ve followed the long road from Raven’s 2021-22 organizing drive to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, this moment feels both hard-earned and consequential. Quality assurance workers are often the first to feel the squeeze of late-stage development and the first to be cut once the credits roll. This contract represents a shift: fewer last-minute fire drills, more predictable schedules, real pay growth, clearer promotions, and support should layoffs happen.

Let’s dig into what’s actually in the deal, why it matters for both developers and players, and what to watch as Black Ops 7 approaches launch.

What’s in the contract, in plain language

• Crunch containment: While game launches will always bring pressure, the agreement curbs the most grueling patterns. Mandatory overtime requires advance notice, scheduling is more flexible, and there are guardrails against stacking heavy weeks back-to-back or turning most weeks in a quarter into mandatory OT marathons.
• Predictability: Managers must give seven days of notice before requiring overtime. That gives QA folks time to plan their lives, balance rest, and prepare for targeted sprints instead of endless grinds.
• Guaranteed raises: A 10% wage increase is locked in across two years, with additional bumps available through merit and promotions. This follows a long stretch without raises or promotions, and it formalizes momentum rather than leaving pay entirely at the mercy of project budgets.
• Clearer roles and promotions: Job descriptions are better defined, and the path from junior to senior—and beyond—has more transparency. For QA, which has historically struggled with fuzzy ladders and glass ceilings, this is a big deal.
• Better support and safety net: The contract expands disability accommodations and adds layoff protections like severance, recall rights, COBRA subsidies, and career transition help. It’s not a magic shield against restructuring, but it softens the blow and respects tenure and contribution.
• Work-from-home as a lasting option: Most members of Raven’s Wisconsin QA group can remain remote full time if they choose, turning a pandemic-era stopgap into a sustained work arrangement.

Why this matters for QA—and everyone else Crunch isn’t just about long hours—it’s about unpredictability. When schedules swing wildly, quality drops, burnout spikes, and veteran knowledge leaks out of teams. Policies that enforce notice and limit how many intense weeks can stack up have a compounding effect: steadier test passes, more consistent bug triage, fewer late-breaking regressions, and a healthier loop between QA and developers.

The clarity around promotions might be the stealth MVP here. For years, QA has been treated as a revolving door: pull in testers late, push them out after ship, replace them next cycle. Locking in career frameworks makes QA a craft with growth, not just a holding pattern. That stability benefits the whole studio. Institutional knowledge—of engine quirks, historical edge cases, platform pitfalls—saves time and prevents repeat fires.

Work-from-home permanence is another lever. Remote QA has matured: better capture tools, standardized repro steps, secured build distribution, and robust communication rhythms. Giving employees the autonomy to choose WFH or hybrid setups widens the talent pool and cuts commuting friction, without sacrificing cadence or coverage.

What players should expect

• More consistent launch-day quality: No contract banishes bugs, but fewer whiplash weeks and better retention mean tighter testing and steadier polish.
• Smoother live updates: Clear scheduling and preserved team knowledge help triage issues faster post-launch, which matters a lot for multiplayer titles with aggressive season cadences.
• A team that sticks around: Familiarity with tools, pipelines, and past incident reports pays off. When the same people are in the room season after season, you feel it in the reduced frequency of déjà vu bugs.

How we got here Raven’s QA group organized amid layoffs and restructuring anxiety, ultimately winning recognition in 2022. The Microsoft acquisition added complexity but also created a unique window for defining workplace norms under new ownership. Bargaining took time, as these things do, but the result is tailored to the gritty reality of AAA release trains rather than an idealized studio schedule. It’s a living document designed to withstand “ship it now” pressure.

Caveats, hurdles, and what to watch

• Enforcement during peak season: Policy shines in calm seas; the test is November. Keep an eye on whether notice windows and overtime caps hold as Black Ops 7 ramps up.
• Avoiding “crunch by another name”: The spirit matters as much as the letter. A stack of “optional” late nights can recreate the same stress if teams feel unspoken pressure to volunteer. Cultural follow-through will be crucial.
• Metrics versus morale: It’s tempting to quantify everything—bugs found, cases closed, hours logged—but quality is also about judgement. Don’t let KPI worship crowd out sustainable pacing and thoughtful testing strategies.
• Remote collaboration: WFH permanence needs strong rituals: daily syncs, clear repro templates, video walkthroughs for tricky bugs, and smart toolchains for build distribution and data capture. Expect iteration on process through the first couple of seasons.

Why this could ripple beyond Raven A functioning, codified QA ladder plus crunch guardrails is a template other studios can adapt. It doesn’t erase the heat of launch windows, but it places non-negotiables around human limits and fairness. When QA becomes a stable career path, studios retain people who know the code’s sharp edges and design intent. That institutional memory shows up in fewer catastrophic regressions and more time spent on prevention instead of emergency response.

It also reframes QA as a partner, not a disposable cost center. Clear expectations and pay growth create room for specialization—platform certification experts, performance sleuths, accessibility champions—roles that make modern blockbusters more polished, playable, and inclusive.

The bottom line This contract won’t single-handedly rewrite how AAA games are made, but it’s a meaningful course correction. It acknowledges that people make games, not just processes, and that predictability is not the enemy of creativity. If Raven’s QA can ship a tentpole like Black Ops 7 while honoring these standards, it will send a powerful message: stability and quality can coexist, and players, developers, and studios all benefit when they do.

For now, take a quiet victory lap for the folks who find the bugs you never see. Then watch launch season closely—not to catch anyone out, but to see a new normal take shape.