Activision Blizzard Never Had a Sexism Problem – Blame Evil Activists

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In an interview, the CEO of Activision Blizzard (Call of Duty, WoW) has now dealt with the sexism scandal that his company has been facing since 2021. According to Bobby Kotick (60), research has shown that his company has never had a problem with systemic sexism. External forces had played badly on the company and wrongly caused an image problem.

That’s the backstory:

  • In July 2021, a state agency filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, making nasty allegations. There is a macho culture in the company, women are disadvantaged, and one employee was even driven to suicide.
  • As a result, more and more problems were identified at Activision Blizzard. Employees went public, there were risqué stories about a “Cosby suite,” about “breast milk stolen from refrigerators,” about “cocaine in the bathrooms.”
  • Activision Blizzard started admitting mistakes and firing people. Ultimately, the discussion ended when Microsoft offered to buy the ailing company, and CEO Bobby Kotick agreed, apparently relieved.

    • In February 2023, Activision Blizzard paid a $35 million fine and said the situation had improved significantly.

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    What has Kotick’s role been so far? CEO Bobby Kotick, the company’s CEO, was ultimately targeted as the person primarily responsible after a Wall Street Journal report about him appeared in November 2021. There were only a few allegations against him personally, but he also had problems:

  • He is said to have caused a manager to rail against the lawsuit and dismiss it as ridiculous
  • Kotick is said to have known about many cases of sexual abuse but not told the board

    • In the end, the employees wanted his head, but he was firmly in the saddle and would now get big bucks if Microsoft bought the company.

    Instead, other people were fired, like Blizzard’s president — for many it was more of a “pawn sacrifice.”

    Kotick speaks of “malicious distortion”

    That’s what he says now: In an interview with Variety, Kotick now presents his view of things:

  • He speaks of a “malicious distortion” of the company that he led to the top for 32 years. That made him angry, but also humbled
  • He doesn’t apologize for Activision Blizzard’s corporate culture, but says the company is preparing a presentation of data showing that his company was not a “fraternity house.”
  • For a company with 17,000 employees, Activision has had a relatively low level of assault complaints

    • We have conducted every possible form of investigation. And we haven’t had a systemic problem with harassment – ever. We had none of what was falsely reported in the media. But what we had was a very aggressive labor rights movement that worked hard to destabilize the company.

    He sees “external forces” and work activists outside the company as the reason for Activision Blizzard’s image problem.

    He personally sees himself portrayed as a hate figure on the Internet in recent years, who is primarily confronted with anti-Semitic comments:

    The hate has turned into a lot of anti-Semitism. If you look at pictures of me circulating on the internet, there are anti-Semitic undertones. My children have received death threats.

    Kotick also emphasizes what a worker-friendly person he is. He is not against unions, is the only one of the 500 Fortune CEOs who are in a union. If there are people in his company who want to join a union, he’s all for it.

    He has nothing against unions, just something against unions that don’t follow the rules.

    How is this commented? The comments below the Variety article are negative. The magazine has been accused of being a “propaganda arm” for Blizzard. The article is full of lies.

    Gaming sites dedicated to the Variety interview also strike a scathing tone:

  • In the case of Kotaku, it is pointed out that he was responsible beforehand and now blames everything on “external forces”.
  • PC Gamer launches conversations with Activision Blizzard employees who made it clear that Activision Blizzard did indeed have a problem with systemic sexism

    • According to Kotick, Activision Blizzard was not sold because it was shaken after the sexism scandal, but Kotick cites completely different reasons:

    Activision Blizzard explains why they had to sell themselves instead of buying EA

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