The employees of Activison Blizzard have returned to manifest this week, just a few months later since the last protest, by a new scandal related to the cases of abuse and toxic culture that workers of the company have suffered for years.
On this occasion, the trigger has been an article at the Wall Steet Journal that reveals that the company's Executive Director Bobby Kotick, not only received several allegations of abuse by some workers, but he hid information to the Board of Directors related to Several cases of sexual abuse within the company.
It is a new chapter of a story that has uncovered the problems of sexism and labor exploitation that exist within many companies within the videogame industry.
In mid-2021, an investigation of the California State Employment Office showed that, for years, Blizzard's managers tolerated and even promoted a toxic work culture and in which abuse, sexual and labor, were to order of the day.
In Conventions and Video Game Trade Shows, or even in internal events of the company itself, Blizzard employees forced the new employees to consume alcohol and sometimes, according to the testimonies of more than 50 employees and ex-employees of the company, they were trying to lie with them. Complaints to the Human Resources Department rarely produced results because the developers were treated, according to one of the witnesses, "as rock stars."
After the publication of this Research Kotick asked employees to publicly speak of their experiences and attend the company's internal legal department, which caused the first wave of protests.
Last July, after a public apology of Kotick, the company dismissed Blizzard's president, J. Allen Bracack, and an executive of Human Resources. To occupy the position of Ballard, the company chose two executives, Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra.
Oneal, the first woman in occupying the position of co-president, resigned at three months. At that time he tried to remove importance to the abandonment of office but recently it has been known that the resignation was due in part to that he considered that the position had been granted symbolically, that there was no interest from the company in changing course And that his salary was less than that of Ybarra despite having the same position.
The more than 150 Blizzard workers who have manifested this week at the Californian headquarters of the company have requested the resignation of Kotick and several shareholders seem to support this demand.
The executive director, for his part, has published a video in which he accuses the Wall Street Journal to "paint an inaccurate and deceptive vision of our company, from me personally and my leadership." The Board of Directors of the company has supported the Executive, recalling that the company has made important changes in recent months to try to correct the errors of the past and make the company "a more inclusive place".
The company is considered one of the most important game developers in the world, especially the Blizzard Division, which is responsible for franchises such as World of Warcraft or Devil.
Date Of Update: 25 November 2021, 22:56
