Former WoW lead Brian Birmingham claims Activision policies ‘steal money’ from employees

Activision Blizzard took another PR hit yesterday when a Bloomberg report disclosed that one of World of Warcraft’s tech leads parted ways with the company because of what he deemed to be questionable management policies.

Last night, former Blizzard lead software engineer Brian Birmingham publicly responded to those reports, confirming his departure and roasting the parent company for business practices that “steal money” from workers.

In a massive series of 17 posts to Twitter, Birmingham detailed Activision Blizzard’s “stack-ranking” policy that required managers like himself to grade employees on a curve relative to their colleagues. The policy allegedly forced him and others to meet a quota for listing workers as “developing,” which implies that they are not proficient enough at their jobs.

While Birmingham confirmed that the Bloomberg report from earlier in the day seemed to have accurately quoted an email he sent to colleagues, he said that he did not send the email himself. But some of the details he provided in his string of messages to Twitter were even more scathing than what we learned from that original report.

He openly referred to Activision Blizzard’s stack-ranking quotas as “toxic,” and he made suggestions that the system has a connection to the way that employees get paid or receive raises. In his eyes, the policy is effectively stealing money from deserving workers.

“[Activision Blizzard] is a problematic parent company,” he said. “They put us under pressure to deliver both expansions early. It is deeply unjust to follow that by depriving employees who worked on them their fair share of profit. The ABK team should be ashamed of themselves. … I can’t participate in a policy that lets ABK steal money from deserving employees, and I can’t be made to lie about it either.”

Hidden in that strongly worded barrage of disappointment, Birmingham confirmed a sad truth that has been a widely held suspicion from WoW players for a while as well. Blizzard rushing to release WoW expansions has been noticeable to players in recent years, so much so that some high-profile influencers, like Twitch’s top MMO streamer Asmongold, have spoken out telling Blizzard to focus on an expansion’s quality instead of a deadline.

While many people might use Birmingham’s departure as fuel for a boycott of Blizzard games, the now-former employee admitted that he won’t be joining anyone who does. Having a fond appreciation for the employees who he worked with at Blizzard, he said that he still intends on playing the company’s games because its developers are “still amazing.”

“I can’t tell you whether to boycott Blizzard games or not,” he said. “How best to express your displeasure is up to you. … I won’t boycott.”