Bungie, Mike Morhaime, and Chris Metzen were all critical of Activision Blizzard.

 

We’ve kept an eye on the situation regarding Activision Blizzard, but we will only mention the new events here. Let’s start with Bungie, who partnered with the company before (but they parted ways in early 2019, taking the publishing rights of Destiny 2 as well), and they wrote the following statement on Twitter: „Bungie is built on empowering our people no matter who they are, where they are from, or how they identify. We have a responsibility to acknowledge, reflect, and do what we can to push back on a persistent culture of harassment, abuse, and inequality that exists in our industry. It’s our responsibility to ensure this type of behaviour is not tolerated at Bungie at any level, and that we never excuse it or sweep it under the rug.

While the accounts in this week’s news are difficult to read, we hope they will lead to justice, awareness, and accountability. We have a zero-tolerance policy at Bungie for environments that support this toxic culture, and we are committed to rooting them out to defend those who are at risk. Women, POC, and underrepresented communities have nothing to gain by reliving their trauma. We believe them when they come forward with reports of abuse or harassment.

We don’t pretend that Bungie is perfect and that no one has experienced harassment while working here, but we will not tolerate it and will confront it head-on. And we will continue to do the work every day to be better. Our goal is to continue to improve the experience for everyone working at Bungie and do our part to make the gaming industry as a whole to be more welcoming and inclusive,” Bungie wrote.

Massively OP noted that although J. Allen Brack, the president of Activision Blizzard, was apologetic in an internal email, he was named in the lawsuit for not taking „effective remedial measures” when it came to claims made by female employees. Alex Afrasiabi, former senior creative director of World of Warcraft, was also named, and he was accused by staffers of multiple harassment infractions. Page 15 of the suit, we can read that Brack counselled Afrasiabi several times, and despite a „slap on the wrist,” he continued to make derogatory remarks, sexually harass, and grope female employees.

Mike Morhaime, the former president (and co-founder) of Activision Blizzard wrote a statement about the situation: „I have read the full complaint against Activision Blizzard and many of the other stories. It is all very disturbing and difficult to read. I am ashamed. It feels like everything I thought I stood for has been washed away. What’s worse but even more important, real people have been harmed, and some women had terrible experiences.

I was at Activision Blizzard for 28 years. During that time, I tried very hard to create an environment that was safe and welcoming for people of all genders and backgrounds. I knew that it was not perfect, but clearly, we were far from that goal. The fact that so many women were mistreated and were not supported means we let them down. In addition, we did not succeed in making it feel safe for people to tell their truth. It is no consolation that other companies have faced similar challenges. I wanted us to be different, better.

Harassment and discrimination exist. They are prevalent in our industry. It is the responsibility of leadership to keep all employees feeling safe, supported, and treated equitably, regardless of gender and background. It is the responsibility of leadership to stamp out toxicity and harassment in any form, across all levels of the company. To the Activision Blizzard women who experienced any of these things, I am extremely sorry that I failed you.

I realize that these are just words, but I wanted to acknowledge the women who had awful experiences. I hear you, I believe you, and I am so sorry to have let you down. I want to hear your stories if you are willing to share them. As a leader in our industry, I can and will use my influence to help drive positive change and to combat misogyny, discrimination, and harassment wherever I can.

I believe we can do better, and I believe the gaming industry can be a place where women and minorities are welcomed, included, supported, recognized, rewarded, and ultimately unimpeded from the opportunity to make the types of contributions that all of us join this industry to make. I want the mark I leave on this industry to be something that we can all be proud of,” Morhaime wrote.

However, Josh „Devolore” Allen, who works at the company to this day, called Morhaime’s statement „100% bullsh_t”: „‘If I’d known this was happening I would have stopped it’ says the man who was told repeatedly that it was happening and did nothing to stop it. I’ve refrained from giving my comments on the situation at Actiblizz because frankly, there are more important people you should be listening to right now. But that statement from a certain former leader was 100% bullshit and I’m furious about it. He knew. He did nothing. Don’t get me wrong, the current leadership is fucking up hard right now too. But please don’t believe for a second that the culture that allowed all of this to happen for the last couple of decades was somehow built by the guy who’s been in charge for 3 years.”

A former female employee also spoke out against Morhaime’s statement, and she showcased an email that she sent to him in 2018, regarding a male employee who was promoted despite exhibiting „egregious bad behaviour.” She mentioned that men such as this unnamed employee would eventually „cost the company money and its good reputation.” „As long as men in power are behaving in a predatory fashion towards women in the company, it will be impossible for women to feel truly comfortable, valued, or safe, it will be harder and harder for the company to draw in and keep talented women who love games,” she wrote.

And Chris Metzen was senior vice president of story and franchise development at Activision Blizzard until his retirement in 2016. He also responded to Morhaime’s statement, issuing an apology: „We failed, and I’m sorry. To all of you at Activision Blizzard – those of you I know and those of you whom I’ve never met – I offer you my very deepest apologies for the part I played in a culture that fostered harassment, inequality, and indifference. There is no excuse. We failed too many people when they needed us because we had the privilege of not noticing, not engaging, not creating necessary space for the colleagues who needed us as leaders. I wish my apology could make any kind of difference. It can’t.”

He added that he’s been keeping an eye on the stories that showed up this week: „Friends and colleagues, people I have valued and admired for years, were directly harmed because I was not present enough to ask, to listen, to hear these stories when it mattered” and that “the yawning disconnect between my perception from the top and the crushing reality many of you experienced fills me with profound shame. Words are cheap. Not sure what grand, sweeping promises do either. Accountability starts with people. Not corporations, or platitudes, or ‘values’ cast in iron around a statue.”

However, Metzen was asked about Afrasiabi, as they have worked together. In further tweets, he added: „I loved working with him and jamming in story meetings. He was someone I thought very highly of on the job, but we never interacted outside of story jams and such […] So learning all this the past week has been just utterly shocking. Just reprehensible shit.” He’s currently running Warchief with Mike Gilmartin (Activision Blizzard’s ex-vice president of quality assurance). It’s a tabletop gaming company.

That’s why we don’t recap things. You already get a book.

Source: WCCFTech, VG247, PCGamer