California sues Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and discrimination against women

DarekP84312 wrote: ↑ I dumped my Activision shares around end of February and about a month later bought AMD. Boy did I dodge a bullet.

BYan wrote: ↑ Was really looking forward to Diablo 2 Remaster, but now can't honestly bring myself to support them. Pre-order cancelled. This is disgusting behaviour and hits home all the harder when you have a daughter at home. If this was her work environment in another few decades, you can bet I'd be pulling that place down brick by brick myself.

BernardRyder wrote: ↑ Video games are really a harbour for a lot of insecure chauvinists.

BernardRyder wrote: ↑I want to believe things will get better for my daughters. I often hope small proactive steps can help them, including challenging toxic posts.

Bryson wrote: ↑ Hahaha, the executive that came with the idea to deal with the situation:
“Let’s commit more crimes to cover up our crimes”

A damning report by the Wall Street Journal claims Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick was aware of the allegations of sexual misconduct and mistreatment of female employees across many parts of the company "for years", yet failed to tell the board of directors and executives everything he knew.

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It's claimed, for instance, Kotick was directly informed of allegations made by a Sledgehammer Games employee that a male supervisor had raped her in 2016 and 2017 after she was pressured into consuming too much alcohol in the office and at work events.

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The same email to Kotick reportedly highlighted another incident in which a second Sledgehammer employee, Eduard Roehrich, had been accused of sexual harassment after a night of drinking in 2017. Speaking to the WSJ, Roehrich said the results of an internal investigation by Activision after the event resulted in two weeks of paid leave and the opportunity to remain at the company in a different position. Roehrich claims Activision HR requested he "keep this matter confidential" at the time.

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Kotick is also said to have been aware of allegations aimed at Dan Bunting, co-head of Activision's Call of Duty studio Treyarch, in which a female employee accused Bunting of sexually harassing her after a night of drinking in 2017. An internal investigation in 2019 reportedly recommended Bunting was fired, but Kotick intervened to keep him.

Earlier this year, an email was sent to all employees of Activision Blizzard from the email account of chief compliance officer, former executive sponsor of the ABV Employee Women’s Network, and former torture apologist, Fran Townsend. Sent in the midst of historic allegations of harassment against the company, it was so bad that it was one of the direct, cited causes of a staff walkout.

Today, somehow, this email has returned and become even more explosive, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that Townsend didn’t even write it.

The email was one of the most tone-deaf, oblivious pieces of executive hand-waving you will ever see. It was sent right in the middle of allegations that shook a major publisher to its core, and led to a number of high-profile firings and resignations, dragging both Activision and Blizzard’s names through the mud for much of 2021. The email had the nerve to call the lawsuit sparking those moves as having “presented a distorted and untrue picture of our company.” It went on to say that Townsend was “proud to be part of a company that takes a hard-line approach to inappropriate or hostile work environments and sexual harassment issues,” despite everything that had just happened, and was about to happen.

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Now the WSJ reports that it was in fact besieged Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick who wrote it. The story says that Kotick, who “approves most internal companywide emails, as well as media responses,” drafted the email himself. He then directed that it be sent under Townsend’s name, likely because she was one of the few women executives at a company run predominantly by men.

An Activision rep responding to the WSJ’s reporting, saying Kotick now “takes responsibility for the incident and regrets it,” and adds, “Ms. Townsend should not be blamed for this mistake.” If you remember at the time, Kotick criticised the email as having been “tone deaf,” despite the fact that it now turns out he wrote it himself.