Activision Blizzard Situation Thread

[ShiraNoMai]

While I think it's the right thing to do to change the name, it is the most minute of things they could do to even remotely resolve their problems. So, really, this is just a given; nothing to be giving praise over.

[Moonface]

See I feel like it can be a nice gesture for maybe some well known person in the community dying so I think ruling it out entirely is a bit sad, but I definitely do agree with changing Mccrees name!

I think that might be better done as skins at this point. At least then if somehow a dead person was discovered to be a piece of shit the costume can just be removed.

[Monocle]

Feds involved now and Bobby Kotick subpoenaed

AAAAAAHHHHHH HA HA HA HAAAAA. 

Good for him. fuck that guy so much. gives himself a bonus while firing staff during a record profits year. I hope this destroys him.

[Moonface]

Feds involved now and Bobby Kotick subpoenaed

AAAAAAHHHHHH HA HA HA HAAAAA. 

Good for him. fuck that guy so much. gives himself a bonus while firing staff during a record profits year. I hope this destroys him.

I'm not well versed on what a subpoena is, but from what I can tell it means Kotick can't hide evidence without punishment?

I definitely think shit has really hit the fan now though, because even Blizzard's chief legal officer has resigned. She basically looked at the situation and went "I ain't paid enough for this shit" and bailed.

[Karo]

Honestly I am really glad that it really feel like for once they won't be able to just sweep it under the rug and forget about it.

[Moonface]

If anyone is curious what Blizzard has been doing to improve themselves during all of this, this press release covers the most recent developments on it: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/2...nitiatives

Not overly keen on the use of "past workplace issues", as if the problems weren't happening recently when they probably were. I'd also like to know just how well implemented anything mentioned really is, because a press release from Blizzard is far too biased to determine if what they're doing actually has the substance to be good enough and isn't just empty words.

[Dragon Lord]

Feds involved now and Bobby Kotick subpoenaed

AAAAAAHHHHHH HA HA HA HAAAAA. 

Good for him. fuck that guy so much. gives himself a bonus while firing staff during a record profits year. I hope this destroys him.

I'm not well versed on what a subpoena is, but from what I can tell it means Kotick can't hide evidence without punishment?

It's a summons to appear in court. 

Honestly I don't know if I really think the Federal Government needed to get involved in this. This is something that the State should be more than sufficient at handling, and the Feds should be focused on bigger issues going on in this country right now.

[Moonface]

I actually didn't realise that by "feds" it literally meant the federal government. I've just heard the term "feds" used so much I just associate it with FBI or other powers that are higher than regular police, so I thought it was still the state but it was being put up to a higher investigative team but I didn't think higher team, i.e. the FBI, instantly equated to the federal government itself. Although I don't see how the SEC being involved has any effect on what the government is doing elsewhere, since it's just an investigative body/commission designed for this sort of thing, and I doubt this case is going to detract from the agency dealing with other cases that fall into their jurisdiction.

[Maniakkid25]

So the Feds reached a settlement with Activision Blizzard to the tune of $18 million dollars, along with "upgrading" Activizzard's training and performance reviews, and a couple other meaningless efforts. This is, quite frankly, fucking insulting. This is a company that made $2.2 BILLION in PROFIT; this is chump change for them to pay out! This is just a slap on the wrist, and this is going to amount to jack-point-shit, mark my words.

[Moonface]

So the Feds reached a settlement with Activision Blizzard to the tune of $18 million dollars, along with "upgrading" Activizzard's training and performance reviews, and a couple other meaningless efforts. This is, quite frankly, fucking insulting. This is a company that made $2.2 BILLION in PROFIT; this is chump change for them to pay out! This is just a slap on the wrist, and this is going to amount to jack-point-shit, mark my words.

This is only a settlement with the EEOC though. The SEC would still be investigating them because they're a separate entity so Activision isn't out of the woods yet, but if the SEC settlement doesn't end up being much more than this one, then Activision may as well be out of the woods because like you said, $18 million is nothing to them. They'll probably just lay some people off to make up the cost.

[Moonface]

• So WSJ did a massive article today investigating Bobby Kotick: https://twitter.com/KirstenGrind/status/...4346298371
  
• It was damning enough to have him immediately respond: https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status...0703042569
  
• A spokesperson also responded on behalf of Activision contesting the report: https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status...6186998786
  
• Over 100 employees staged a walkout demanding his resignation following the publication of the article by WSJ: https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status...9049884672
  
• However, the board is standing alongside Kotick: https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status...4677366794
  
• Also, the female co-leader of Blizzard who was appointed alongside a male co-leader after the lawsuit that took place this past summer, resigned two weeks ago and came out saying she was paid less than the other co-leader: https://twitter.com/benfritz/status/1460641027295903746
  

It amazes me how much Blizzard still tries to dig their heels in over this when every time something comes out it absolutely damns them, and impressively new things come out that happen after the last damning report comes out.

[Nightingale]

They make it worst with each statement they make.

They even had a "Zero Tolerance" promoted twit.

[Moonface]

I bet the board only stands with Kotick because of how he built the company up to be as successful monetarily it is. I'd hope the stocks crashing through the floor would do something but if they're still making hand over fist money why are they going to care about what happens? Especially when they know more than enough people will shell out money for things like the upcoming Diablo game and I bet there are a lot of people, unaware or otherwise, still handing money over for their existing games and/or DLC.

Kotick might get what's coming to him in the end, but I can't see the board ever getting any karma for standing with him through this unless his successor is able to oust any of them, but I don't know if a CEO has that power or not. Seems more like Kotick is at the will of the board and they could kick him out at a moments notice the second he stops being useful to them, or rather their pockets.

[ShiraNoMai]

Bro, apparently even shareholders want Kotick out. It's fuckin' nuts, man.

The level of ass-pulling these guys do on a day-to-day and seemingly thinking they can get away with all of it is next level. They need their come-upppance and soon.

[Moonface]

Bro, apparently even shareholders want Kotick out. It's fuckin' nuts, man.

The level of ass-pulling these guys do on a day-to-day and seemingly thinking they can get away with all of it is next level. They need their come-upppance and soon.

They also asked the two longest serving directors of the board to resign by the end of the year too:

In addition to asking Kotick to resign, the group of shareholders is calling for the board’s two longest-serving directors, Brian Kelly and Robert Morgado, to retire by Dec. 31. Kelly is chairman of the Activision Blizzard board of directors and Morgado serves as lead independent director. The Activision Blizzard board of directors responded to the Journal’s article Tuesday, saying it remained “confident in Bobby Kotick’s leadership.”

However, I raise you on all of that with PlayStation Chief Jim Ryan admonishing "Activision Blizzard Inc. Wednesday for an inadequate response to allegations that Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick was aware of sexual misconduct and harassment claims at the game publisher for years and that he had mistreated women." - PlayStation chief criticizes Activision's response to crisis.

Not only was this sent out to PlayStation employee's via email, but PlayStation directly reached out to Activision expressing their views on the situation. That's a huge deal; companies rarely go to that length in getting involved with another companies problems. I wonder if others will be encouraged to speak out? Imagine if Microsoft took the same stance and both companies collectively decide to stop letting Activision publish games on their platforms so as to not support a company that does the things Activision has done. Doubt it'd happen but it'd be crazy if it did.