Overworked, Underpaid, Lies, And A Non-Compete: Former Overwatch 2 Lead VFX Artist Explains Why They Left

It's probably not a surprise to you by now that working at Activision Blizzard probably isn't all you ever thought it could be. For a LONG time, Blizzard had a mystique around it. Friends I have that went to work there years and years ago couldn't wait to become part of the team. The company made amazing, often groundbreaking games, they had a stellar rep as a place to work, and people even took less than comparable positions elsewhere to work there JUST to be able to say they "worked at Blizzard".

Obviously those days are long gone. However, the public wasn't made privy to a lot of the "behind-the-scenes" until rather recently (relatively speaking). Lawsuits, allegations, and more bad news coming from governmental agencies, former and current employees, and the press painted a wildly different picture than many suspected.

Today we hear one more such story from the former VFX Lead Artist on Team 4 (the Overwatch 2 team).

In a thread on X (formerly Twitter) Chris Sayers details exactly why he left Activision Blizzard in November of last year, despite loving the type of work he was doing, the team he worked with, and making some of your favorite cosmetics.

The accusations Sayers makes would likely have surprised you 5 years ago...today, probably not so much, sadly.

According to Chris's LinkedIn, he was a Senior VFX Artist for only about 9 months before being promoted. Like you, he was quite surprised this was happening already. That's pretty rapid career advancement. However, he would only make it in his new role of Lead VFX Artist for 5 months before he left ABK entirely.

Sayers alleges that, prior to the promotion, he had multiple meetings with other leads, directors, HR staff, and more to nail down exactly what the promotion entailed responsibility-wise, pay-wise, and to iron out all the details to ensure everyone was comfortable with the transition.

Expectedly, Sayers would take on more responsibilities as now (in addition to his current workload) he would oversee 3 people, manage the VFX Chinese pipeline, and do additional "Lead" tasks like handle meetings and planning.

Full details ironed out, Sayers went to work.

And there was a lot of it.

After the official announcement went out, Sayers found himself being tasked in the first week of his new position with letting go of an employee that was a friend because the employee wouldn't return to the office for work. Sayers claims he expressed that the employee was simply waiting for accommodations as the employee was the primary caregiver for their parents. A point that Sayers alleges management replied to by saying "yeah [laughing] we're not gonna do that for a junior."

Sayers goes on to say that his raise was never put through and, despite taking on even MORE additional work since the company wouldn't backfill an intern position, each time Sayers questioned this via email or Slack messages, he was given the runaround. Promotion raises happen in August, no wait, it's September...etc.

Things came to a head when Sayers finds out that he's making less than 50% of what other leads make and when this point is questioned, Sayers claims the HR team says it's based on market, not peer/position, using Sayers's UK location as the basis for the pay discrepancy and saying it wouldn't make business sense to pay Sayers more than the company had to pay him.

At this point Sayers is done. He sends an email to everyone saying if the pay increase isn't pushed through, he's not doing the additional work anymore.

Understandable...hell, even something that I personally think shouldn't have waited as long as Sayers waited.

Here's the rub, though.

An almost instant company response, but not the one you'd think.

Instead, Sayers accuses ABK of turning around and saying "what promotion?".

Yeah, Sayers says the company advised that this was a lateral move, not a promotion, no pay increase was warranted or promised.

An investigation into the formal complaint filed comes to the same conclusion. HR and the company did nothing wrong.

Sayers, predictably, quits.

But that's not the end, according to Sayers. Now the company advises that they will enforce a 3-month non-compete in the paperwork he signed. This effectively bars Sayers from earning income for the next 90 days, and there is no pay from ABK coming to cover those three months.

He was locked out of company systems within minutes.

If every accusation made by Sayers is true, it certainly paints the picture of a ruthless corporate machine and I can't image many wanting to work inside those walls for long.

Check out the full thread on X. If nothing else, I hope it gave Chris the ability to vent some frustration that I am sure has been building up for a while.

Sayers is now the Lead VFX Artist at Anchor Point Studios, a game development house under NetEase.

We've reached out to Activision Blizzard for a comment on these allegations and will update this piece if we hear back.