Epic Games has announced that it will be hiring thousands of full-time employees with benefits. The employees who will be given this opportunity include Quality Assurance testers (QA) as well as other eligible contract-based employees.
The news was made public thanks to a memo found by The Verge employee. Specifically, the memo states that Epic Games will offer full-time employment to eligible employees based in the US starting April 4, 2022. Additionally, in this memo, the company notes that some employees will keep their existing positions as it is more profitable for them.
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An Epic spokeswoman said the company will hire a few hundred of its full-time contractors, most of whom are quality assurance (QA) auditors. It also confirmed that all of the workers will be eligible for the company U.S. employee benefits programs and will be employed directly by Epic Games. However, the company currently contracts QA and other workers through temporary agencies, including Eastridge, Hays, and Nextaff.
It is worth noting, however, that Epic will continue to hire temporary employees to cover short-term needs as it did not specify the other areas in which employees will have the opportunity for full-time employment (apart from QA testers) and did not mention which employees are exempt from this move.
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Epic Games has offered this opportunity at a time when tensions between workers and major gaming studios are high. The offer will improve working conditions for QA and other workers. In December, Raven Software laid off 12 QA testers, prompting resignations.
It’s well-known that the gaming industry subjects workers to incredibly long hours (which are sometimes unpaid), and Epic is no exception. In 2019, Epic came under fire after its workers revealed the long workdays they put in to keep the hugely popular battle royale game, Fortnite, up to fan expectations. Epic Games later closed its studios for two weeks in response to worker concerns, and when it ended its policy last year that allowed employees to take every other Friday off, it upset employees who believed the extra day off was beneficial. Meanwhile, a number of independent developers have switched to a four-day workweek, including Young Horses, Crow Crow Crow, Die Gute Fabrik, and others.
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Source: theverge.com
