Activision Blizzard sued: News on California lawsuit, walkout, and more

Activision Blizzard, the maker of huge titles corresponding to Name of Responsibility, World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Sweet Crush, is the topic of a lawsuit filed in July by California that alleges that the corporate has fostered a “pervasive ‘frat boy’ office tradition” with “fixed sexual harassment” of its feminine workers. The civil go well with, filed by the California Division of Truthful Employment and Housing after a two-year investigation, consists of claims for gender-based discrimination, unequal pay, sexual harassment, and different violations of the state’s civil rights legal guidelines.

The lawsuit has kicked off a reckoning inside Activision Blizzard and throughout the sport trade, with a whole bunch of Activision Blizzard workers collaborating in a walkout on the finish of July to protest the corporate’s preliminary response to the lawsuit and demand modifications from management. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick ultimately issued a brand new assertion calling the corporate’s unique feedback “tone deaf” and pledging to implement sweeping modifications. One of many first main ones got here on Aug. 3, when Blizzard Leisure president J. Allen Brack — who is known as within the lawsuit as an enabler of an alleged harasser on the studio — stepped down from his position.

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