3 ms·
Non-compete clauses are very much a thing in our industry I wouldn’t be surprised if Blizzard were to enforce—or at least threaten to enforce—them if a sizable
by runarberg 5y ago
Non-compete clauses are very much a thing in our industry I wouldn’t be surprised if Blizzard were to enforce—or at least threaten to enforce—them if a sizable bulk of their workers migrated to a new workplace.
- psyc 5y agoNot in CA.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y agoIn California?
- runarberg 5y agoYou can always threaten to sue, that is often enough of a deterrent.
- nindalf 5y agoThey sort of tried I think, but it wasn’t very successful. They fired a couple of founders from a successful studio that Activision owned - Infinity Ward (known for Call of Duty). Those two went on to create Respawn Entertainment, a studio where many ex-Infinity Ward members joined them. There were many other studios created by ex-ActivisionBlizzard employees but I think this had the most bad blood associated with it.
- 908B64B197 5y agoNot in California. If your jurisdiction has different laws than California for non-compete, that's a red flag.
- runarberg 5y agoI doubt an average tech worker knows the extent of the non-compete clause in their contract. And I doubt anybody except skilled lawyers know whether the non-compete clause will hold if they are moving to a new startup which is registered in Delaware. It is enough for Activision to threaten to sue, and surely that will deter many enough workers from moving together that they wont be able to move as a team.
- 908B64B197 5y ago> And I doubt anybody except skilled lawyers know whether the non-compete clause will hold if they are moving to a new startup which is registered in Delaware Doesn't matter if the work is performed in California.
- runarberg 5y agoThe average worker—including my self—doesn’t know that and can therefor be intimidated by a potential law suit.
- 908B64B197 5y agoI wish engineering programs added a law crash course: types of partnerships, how equity comp works and basic employment laws. At good schools you can generally enroll in one as an elective.