We keep hearing more details about what was happening within Activision Blizzard, and things are becoming disgusting at this rate.

 

The Washington Post and Bloomberg both revealed further details about the internal happenings at the Bobby Kotick-led company. Both articles delve into the alleged drinking culture a Activision Blizzard. Many of the teams had access to alcohol at work, from frozen margarita machines to full-on bars. Bloomberg mentions how employees were vomiting into trash cans during company time and heavy drinking after work hours. This atmosphere stood until 2019, with efforts being made to cut it back with a two-drink limit at events rule, which wasn’t kept by many employees who found ways to get around it.

The Washington Post added that three senior leaders (the previously discussed Alex Afrasiabi and eSports team executive Tyler Rosen and chief technology officer Ben Kilgore) were let go between 2018 and 2020. Kilgore was planned to take over as head of Blizzard after Mike Morhaime, a co-founder, left in 2018.

Activision’s influence over Blizzard is growing, and J. Allen Brack (who has also stepped down from the Activision Blizzard presidential seat) taking the helm didn’t help matters. The developers have been forced to do more with less, and with the prospect of layoffs hanging over their heads, the employees have been reluctant to cast their teams in a bad light by reporting misconduct.

The Activision Blizzard (ActiBlizz onwards) PR nightmare is far from over, as the sponsors of Overwatch League started to back out. The Washington Post reported that a few sponsors are stepping back. Coca-Cola’s statement says they are “working with our partners at Activision Blizzard as we take a step back for a moment to revisit plans.” State Farm has said they’re “re-evaluating our limited marketing relationship with the Overwatch League.” Neither of them is running ads over this weekend in the League. T-Mobile didn’t provide a statement, but its ads and branding have also disappeared from the broadcasts. There are a few non-respondents, such as Xfinity, IBM, Cheez-It, Pringles, and TeamSpeak.

Let’s get back to Morhaime. A former assistant of his has informed him and other senior leadership about the rampant misconduct within the company. Bloomberg also mentions that the Activision Blizzard devs got so much fame that they were seen as rock stars.” These developers were untouchable. Not only could they tell you how to do your job, but had so much power, they could do whatever they want in the line of sight with their other powerful friends,” former employee Christina Mikkonen said.

The Washington Post had an ex-worker adding, “In my experience, you just stopped going to HR. They were almost like a gang that would ruin your career if you reported certain individuals.” And a source recalled a conversation to Bloomberg where an executive expressed to staff those young women who were fans or worked at the company see them as superstars and “why shouldn’t they benefit sexually from that?”

The report delves into how former senior Blizzard execs, such as Morhaime, Brack, and Frank Pearce (a founder) all married women in less senior roles at the company, which then  set an uncomfortable precedent for some of the female staff, as it led to unwanted sexual advances at work. Bloomberg mentions the gender pay disparities, and a source shared a screenshot of a manager telling her that pay discussions among staff were prohibited. (The California Equal Pay Act of 2015 made it illegal for employers to prohibit workers from discussing their pay with each other, though.)

An Activision Blizzard spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company “strives to pay all employees equitably for equal work.” And to The Washington Post, the spokesperson said, “We take every allegation seriously and will investigate all claims. We will not tolerate anyone found to have impeded the integrity of our processes for evaluating claims and imposing appropriate consequences. If employees have any concerns about how Human Resources handled claims, including those related to retaliation, we have other reporting options, including anonymous ones.”

The skeletons are now falling from the closet.

Source: WCCFTech, WCCFTech, Gamesindustry