Warzone devs grow by 50% after hiring from Fortnite, Apex Legends, Far Cry studios

Call of Duty: Warzone’s principal studio, Raven Software, has grown by at least 50% as recent reports show the devs have acquired new employees with experience in Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Far Cry.

Warzone released in March 2020 and has continued to grow in the year since, quickly erupting as one of the biggest battle royales in the world. In order to keep pace with that progress, Activision have apparently gone on a hiring spree — adding a number of devs to Raven’s team.

As far as Warzone goes, the game runs on Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare engine, uses assets from Treyarch’s Black Ops Cold War, and everything is facilitated by Raven. With Sledgehammer Games’ Vanguard expected in 2021, even more chefs enter the kitchen.

To help Raven maintain Warzone’s trajectory, the team has reportedly been grown by 50% in the past year. Of note, they have hired employees from three industry-renowned studios: Epic Games, Respawn Entertainment, and Ubisoft.

As VGC’s Andy Robinson reports, since August 2020, Raven have brought in around 12 producers, 40 programmers and testers, 30 artists and animators, as well as other positions. Additionally, 40 more positions are open for hiring.

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Of the newcomers, the most prominent are likely Creative Director Ted Timmins (who worked on Far Cry 6) and Senior Production Director William Fine (who worked on Fortnite). Other hires come from studios like Respawn, Rockstar, EA, Bungie, and more.

While it’s always good to add manpower, the sources of these hires are intriguing. Warzone players have long hoped for three principal features: an effective anti-cheat, a ranked playlist, and a new map.

It’s hard to ignore Raven’s new experience with those features — as Fortnite is known for having a strong BR anti-cheat, Apex Legends has a BR ranked playlist, and Far Cry is a franchise known for robust world-building.

• Read more: Warzone players want popular Apex Legends feature to punish early quitters

Time will tell if bringing on people from studios experienced in those features will actually help, but one thing is clear: the Warzone community is expanding and so are its demands, so Activision are trying to keep up.