Activision-Blizzard Sued By California

[Shadowferal]

End of the year maybe?
nothing new, but

Bobby Kotick, the longtime chief executive of videogame giant Activision Blizzard Inc., received a troubling email in July 2018.

A lawyer for a former employee at Sledgehammer Games, an Activision-owned studio, alleged in the email that her client had been raped in 2016 and 2017 by her male supervisor after she had been pressured to consume too much alcohol in the office and at work events.

The female employee reported the incidents to Sledgehammer’s human-resources department and other supervisors, but nothing happened, according to the email, which threatened a lawsuit against the company.

Within months of receiving the email, said people familiar with the situation, Activision reached an out-of-court settlement with the woman, who also had reported one of the incidents to the police. Mr. Kotick didn’t inform the company’s board of directors about the alleged rapes or the settlement, said people with knowledge of the board.

Activision has been thrown into turmoil in recent months by multiple regulatory investigations into alleged sexual assaults and mistreatment of female employees dating back years. Mr. Kotick has told directors and other executives he wasn’t aware of many of the allegations of misconduct, and he has played down others, according to people familiar with the matter and internal documents.

Those documents, which include memos, emails and regulatory requests, and interviews with former employees and others familiar with the company, however, cast Mr. Kotick’s response in a different light. They show that he knew about allegations of employee misconduct in many parts of the company. He didn’t inform the board of directors about everything he knew, the interviews and documents show, even after regulators began investigating the incidents in 2018. Some departing employees who were accused of misconduct were praised on the way out, while their co-workers were asked to remain silent about the matters.

Mr. Kotick has been subpoenaed in a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into how the company handled reports of misconduct and disclosed them to the public, The Wall Street Journal reported in September. What Mr. Kotick knew about the alleged incidents, and what he told other employees, the board of directors and investors, is part of that probe.

[Easo]

Only other company to add to the list would be Nintendo. Who I doubt will say shit since they don't give a shit about industry trends or anything else going on, plus don't have much of a close relationship with Activision like Microsoft/Sony have had. Valve isn't gonna say/do shit (they never really do), no other PC storefronts will say shit, doubt Apple/Google will say shit about mobile titles, other publishers probably don't want to weigh in on this (definitely not Ubi, likely not even Epic, 2K, or others). Hell, I doubt EA even wants to wade in on this since right now they're the huge beneficiary of all the historical hate directed their way being largely redirected towards ATVI (and to a lesser extent Ubi).

I hope you are wrong on this one (though you are probably right), this kinda is a chance for some karma farming by those companies. We will see soon, I think it is clear Activision will have to put out new statements on Monday, which could be fun.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I hope you are wrong on this one (though you are probably right), this kinda is a chance for some karma farming by those companies. We will see soon, I think it is clear Activision will have to put out new statements on Monday, which could be fun.

I think they are determined to sit this one out. After the one week off they only need to sit out 2-3 more weeks and then we have the christmas/new year slump. Unless the WSJ has some additional ammunition to keep shelling the beady-eyed trashgoblin I think they will even succeed with it. The people at the helm of AB are utterly morally bankrupt and they don't really give a toss. Unless there is some dirt on the individual members, nothing is ever going to change. I doubt the stock is going to take a massive dive again as well (maybe a couple of points here and there), only other way I see this going anywhere is if they fall below their 2019 low ($42).

[Traveler Voltin]

i wish there was a way to make him suffer. its a shame they cant force him to donate all his money

[segara82]

i wish there was a way to make him suffer. its a shame they cant force him to donate all his money

the ATVI stock price has gone down 30% since the start of the year with no good news in sight. That's hurting the investors quite a bit, and will only add fuel to the SEC case. Bobby seems more and more likely to lose his job.

[Traveler Voltin]

the ATVI stock price has gone down 30% since the start of the year with no good news in sight. That's hurting the investors quite a bit, and will only add fuel to the SEC case. Bobby seems more and more likely to lose his job.

even if he loses his job he has a ton of money. this wont hurt him much.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

just dont go to work, activision/blizzard. we need to kick his ass out anyway possible

[Kaleredar]

I hope you are wrong on this one (though you are probably right), this kinda is a chance for some karma farming by those companies. We will see soon, I think it is clear Activision will have to put out new statements on Monday, which could be fun.

I think they could potentially step on a land mine if they try and play the high and mighty card.

Activision-Blizzard is currently the most visible studio being exposed for the horrendous things that have been going on, but they aren’t the only ones doing it, or who have done it. I wouldn’t be surprised if other studios are internally attempting to find and remove similar complaints that they may have heard in a quiet manner. California going so vociferously after activision-blizzard is likely a warning shot for all the other entertainment studios to clean up their acts while they can, lest they suffer the same fate.


In essence, these other studios may warily be practicing a “those that live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones “ mentality and are more quietly reviewing their steps forward.

[Yuujin]

It just doesn't make sense. Its almost if its made up because they should at least look at it from a PR point of view, but even that got overlooked.

Like you mention, with all the possibilities they have to turn this around, the best example, or rather the most obvious example they could show for was to give those two the same pay.

You also have to remember that this is a corporation. The company I work for, after acquiring other companies, is in the habit of giving promotions to people to match their incoming salaries. It isn't surprising for someone to make the cut then be promoted to an operations manager or production manager position, while not raising their pay, so their salary matches their title.

Usually these raises come with other benefits like better stock options or additional bonus potentials.

Am I saying that is what happened here? No. But this could have been Activision-Blizzard's attempt to kill two birds with one stone.

[Easo]

Well, Nintendo has joined the party and is "distressed" regarding those reports.

[Edge-]

Wow, I'm surprised they weighed in at all, but good on them. That's a fairly united front from the platform holders at least.

[CostinR]

Wow, I'm surprised they weighed in at all, but good on them. That's a fairly united front from the platform holders at least.

Well Oneal's revelations were a huge nail in the coffin for Bobby. These companies don't want to end their association with Activison but things are getting so bad that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are getting afraid they'll lose a lot of money.

[Orby]

Personally I would prefer the company burn to the ground and from the ashes rise a new company, with new games and IP made by the good people at Blizzard. Although that would require a deep cleaning, one that the company wont take because it requires removing the people at the top who are protecting Bobby Kotick. Hope the devs continue to keep pushing though. Although I tend to believe Jen Oneal in saying that the company is beyond change. The corruption runs deep.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Personally I would prefer the company burn to the ground and from the ashes rise a new company, with new games and IP made by the good people at Blizzard. Although that would require a deep cleaning, one that the company wont take because it requires removing the people at the top who are protecting Bobby Kotick. Hope the devs continue to keep pushing though. Although I tend to believe Jen Oneal in saying that the company is beyond change. The corruption runs deep.

I'm willing to believe her take on that. The fact that the anti-Bobby movement from share holders is only 0.6% of the shareholder stock bespeaks of how much the big boys want to protect Bobby. It seems they're even willing to take a hit financially, probably believing they can recover if they just weather this storm.

And honestly, if this is the last bit of scandal to come out of Blizzard, I can see this storm blowing over. WoW might be suffering, but the other Blizzard IPs are doing fairly well, and WoW token sales + WoW classic is basically keeping WoW afloat.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I'm willing to believe her take on that. The fact that the anti-Bobby movement from share holders is only 0.6% of the shareholder stock bespeaks of how much the big boys want to protect Bobby. It seems they're even willing to take a hit financially, probably believing they can recover if they just weather this storm.

The problem is simply that the beady-eyed trashgoblin owns too much stock in the first place. You also can't bar a major investor from his rights to vote and if he is voted out, why should he care about appeasing others with abstaining? This is never going to get anywhere unless they can directly bring him down with a major legal case that would warrant seazing some of his assets. As you said, they will just sit it out and nothing will ever change at the company.

[Kellorion]

whats going on today? something about the ABK board being bribed?

[Bakis]

If and it is a big if as of yet, Bobby ends up going I would not be surprised that at least two on the board has to as well.
Forgot their name but the 2 oldtimers has clearly not done what is required by law in such a case. The board is just now, weeks after the CA case got out starting to have a meeting every 14th+ day to have meetings specifically following up if they get proper amount of information from Bobby.
That they havent actively sought that information previously at the bare minimum since the CA lawsuit got out, is baffling and a pretty strong case that they have not lived up to the legal obligations they fall under.
So if Bobby has to go part of the board is to be blamed enough that they have to leave as well.

As a sidenote, after the Playstation internal-never-to-get-leaked *cough* chastising happened it turns out Playstation is facing gender discrimation lawsuit as well.

Everything is still a big if though. Sony, MS etc wont throw their major partner under the bus yet. Something more has to happen in order for that to happen. Stockprices tumbling is putting pressure on Bobby and the board for sure but so far not a single major shareholder put any serious pressure. It is a shitstorm so far but nothing more in terms of changes to the leadership.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

And as I predicted, employees are now in mass exodus to leave until Bobby resigns. The karma continues. The garbage fire continues to get more fiery and stinkier.

[YUPPIE]

why are people so excited over the crash and burn here in particular? It means WoW and OW could shut their servers off. Don't you feel like 20 years of your life would be wasted?

[khazmodan]

why are people so excited over the crash and burn here in particular? It means WoW and OW could shut their servers off. Don't you feel like 20 years of your life would be wasted?

Playing a video game for 20 years is a waste of time anyway but I'm sure Bobby Kotick wants you to believe in the sunk cost fallacy in the game so he can continue getting more money. We are just observers of this train going off the cliff and we have no hand on the controls, the only vote we have is money spent and if you are still paying monthly then you are approving of everything they are doing. Even after this dumpster fire runs out of money to burn, there will be an attempt (or several) to try to recapture the millions of former players that have heavy nostalgic memories they would like to relive. The truth is that there are still people out there that could run WoW as good as it was at its peak but it will take a miracle for them to get control of it because the finance/Wall Street/corporate overlords will have to completely lose interest in WoW and that will not happen until the love from the players is destroyed down to the point where there they give no shits whatsoever. Activision did this with Guitar Hero and are doing it now with Call of Duty by bringing out expansions and dlc too often while being too mediocre, leading to apathy in the customers.