Modern Warfare 3just dropped to whatever the opposite of applause is. Between low critic scores and collective irritation withXboxtrying to shill for on the homepage, the latest entry in theCoDfranchise isn’t exactly winning a lot of people over. The bigger story, however, is the flurry of accusations about the working conditions faced by those working on the game. According toGamesIndustry.biz, Modern Warfare 3 was developed “in just 16 months”, half the time that a CoD game is usually made in. This squeeze led to “periods of crunch and communications issues” for those in the trenches.
Crunch is a real bad thing — nobody should be sacrificing their physical or mental health for the sake of a video game — but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Since at least 2009, the development of CoD games has a storied history of reported employee abuse, one that’s starting to catch up withActivision.
Greed Isn’t Good For Everyone
Let’s go back in time to 2009, when Modern Warfare 2 dropped. It was a game that would quickly go on to sell gangbusters, as I’m sure we all know. However, things weren’t so rosy behind the scenes. In 2010, the top dogs atInfinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella, filed a lawsuit claiming that Activision had fired them a month prior without paying them the bonuses they were promised. According toPolygon, Activision settled out of court in 2012, paying $42 million (in addition to an extra $22 million in promised bonus payments) to a total of38 plaintiffsfrom the Infinity Ward Employee Group, so this clearly went much further than two people, and Activision ended up delivering a game that made more than $400 million in itsfirst 24 hours alone.
PlayStation Could Really Use A ‘Gamer CEO’ Like Phil Spencer
With Jim Ryan on the way out, Sony needs a successor who’s as capable of talking to gamers as they are to shareholders.
If you thought Activision would learn anything from this settlement, you have a level of optimism I could only dream of (as both someone with knowledge of the games industry and as a British person). No, this Scrooge-McDuck-adjacent scheme to reportedly con a whole division out of bonuses was just the tip of the iceberg. It’d be easier to go by subject than by dates, starting with layoffs. Activision has historically been pretty trigger-happy about taking away its employees' livelihood, such as in 2019 when itlaid off around 800 peopledespite record profits. 2013 also saw layoffs pointed at CoD specifically over atTreyarch(according toIGN). Safe to say, it’s pretty poor form to throw those doing the work under the bus when the bigwigs are taking home record dough, particularly Activision CEO andbillionaireBobby Kotick.
I’d be remiss not to mention the recent allegations of widespread sexual misconduct and a toxic workplace culture. According to a lawsuit filed by theDepartment of Fair Employment and Housingin California (where Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer are based), allegations of sexism, unequal pay, racism, and sexual harassment have been rampant throughout the company. The document contains accusations of truly despicable behavior.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there either. Crunch is especially evident throughout the development of CoD. There’s the most recent allegations at Sledgehammer (despitereportedpromises of no more crunch after similar conditions for those working onCoD: Vanguard, according toGamesIndustry.biz). There were also accusations from 2019 ofcrunch at Treyarchand further accounts ofoverworking contractorsacross the franchise in 2020. None of this should ever be viewed as acceptable; developers should never have to crunch. Crunch is very much something that comes with the asterisk of force. Not a gun to the head, but an implied threat to employment — something all the more pronounced by Activision’s penchant for layoffs.
No, I Would NOT Want Microsoft To Get Its Grips On Nintendo
You already have Activision, Phil Spencer, now step away from the plumber.
The Present And (Hopefully?) The Future
Reports of Activision’s avarice know no bounds, and the crown jewel that is CoD has naturally become the prime target for its apparently relentless greed. In addition to being undoubtedly implicated in the horrific culture that seems to be running throughout the company, CoD’s developers have been impacted by constant crunch and layoffs throughout the franchise’s life. This history of abuse seems to be not only coming more and more to the surface, but it’s certainly impacting the games more and more. Modern Warfare 3 has been thoroughly panned no matter how muchMicrosofttries to shove it down the throat of everyone who owns an Xbox. The series is starting to wear the reports of mistreatment involved in its creation on its sleeve.
Speaking of Microsoft, there’s a glimmer of hope in the form of its merger with Activision. I’ve been extremely critical of that merger and how bad it’ll likely be for the industry as a whole. However, here it gives us a reason for hope. According toGamesIndustry.biz, Microsoft will be upholding its labour neutrality agreement with the Communication Workers of America, allowing workers at Activision to unionize. Activision’s numerous union-busting escapades are another instance of its repeated abuses, and I’m glad that workers there may finally see some justice. Unionization is incredibly important, especially in an industry that has lagged behind in that regard as much as the games industry has.
There needs to be more of a reckoning yet at Activision. CoD is a franchise with dollar revenues in the multi-billions. It’s a series associated with gaming as a whole. However, the people that have been making it a success have repeatedly been placed in brutal development cycles — cycles that need to be broken.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
WHERE TO PLAY
