Right now, Activision is a circus of horrors and dwarves are growing all over. As we mentioned recently, all the controversy surrounding the lawsuits against Activision Blizzard for harassment and sexism has been reactivated with force after Bobby Kotick, president of the company, was singled out for knowing these harassment situations and ignoring them, allowing them to be continued to perpetrate inside the offices. The blood is reaching the river in such a way that even PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has openly positioned himself against Kotick and this famous video game company.
This is how he explains it Jason Schreier at Bloomberg, in which he emphasizes that, via email, Jim Ryan has been “very disappointed” by Activision’s attitude towards his current situation and “Discouraged and frankly surprised” regarding the company’s statements backing Bobby Kotick. In fact, he also stiffly adds that “we do not believe that the statements adequately address the gravity of the situation,” making it clear that moves away from the stance that Activision Blizzard publicly shows. A logical position, considering that, without money involved, no one in their right mind would want to be around them today.
NEW: PlayStation boss Jim Ryan slammed Activision Blizzard this morning, writing in an email to staff that he was “disheartened and frankly stunned” by this week’s news. “We do not believe their statements of response properly address the situation.” https://t.co/78mvdvqZzs
– Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) November 17, 2021
The noise comes from far away. Very far. Although the origin of Activision emerged in response to the harmful practices that were practiced in Atari decades ago, the company has degenerated in the same direction, as pointed out by all the accusations directed at the company. In recent months, we could see how the scandal of harassment and sexist practices was uncovered, but there were more things before that, and there have been others after that, also very serious.
For example, long before these macho scandals were uncovered, Activision in General and Kotick in particular were giving a bad image with massive layoffs, the closure of the European division of the company, while the CEO took a goal premium of $ 200 million. This controversial cousin, in fact, forced him to lower his salary later to improve his public image.
In addition, since this whole wave of accusations jumped, there have been terrible actions that demonstrate, once again, Activision Blizzard’s lack of interest in doing things the right way. On the one hand, we find the lukewarm measures that supposedly came to alleviate this situation of harassment, which involved the occasional dismissal, but it was not any kind of revolution. On the other hand, there is also the case of Jen O’Neal, who went on to co-direct Blizzard after the scandal and was seen forced to quit in just two months for the harassment he suffered. We also found the board’s public endorsement of Bobby Kotick, or even measures like hire anti-union companies to avoid riots among company workers.
Activision’s situation is unsustainable, both for them in particular and for the gaming industry in general and, the sooner weighty measures are taken, the sooner this type of game will be purged from the world of video games. practices that, unfortunately, are still far from over.