Xbox Is Now Responsible For Activision Blizzards Horribly Tarnished Image
It’s been an interesting few weeks in the world of gaming. PlayStation is said to be getting it’s own version of Game Pass, Dying Light 2’s Trophies have been leaked. But let’s be honest here…
The Biggest news story in gaming at the moment is Xbox’s huge $70bn acquisition of one of the biggest companies in gaming: Activision Blizzard (See our article with details about it Here.) Activision Blizzard have been in hot water for the past couple of years due to the horrible work environment that was said to have been cultivated by CEO Bobby Kotick.
Last summer, the state of California sued the company, referring to it as a “Breeding Ground For Harassment”. Blizzard managers joked about “sleeping with their assistants” and recruiters supposedly asked a woman sincerely vulgar questions that should not be repeated. All the while some male employees engaged in so-called “Cube-Crawls, in which they would get drunk and ‘crawl’ through cubicles of the office in order to harass women.
Activision Blizzard is undoubtedly one of the most infamously sickening places to work in the game industry. Beyond the innate vile nature of the business in this regard, the companies higher-ups have also quite clearly shown a complete disregard and disrespect for the people that work there. After a series of major layoffs at Raven Studios in early December, many employees at the Raven ‘walked out’ of the company going on strike. They have actually been on strike for almost seven weeks now, and so far all Activision Blizzard did was attempt to downplay the allegations of sexual misconduct and assault, and try and save their reputation, all the while ironically avoiding another blemish on their reputation.
The Xbox purchase of the company should be seen as a huge benefit and improvement. Xbox’s reputation is very different and considering that many of the CEO’s within Xbox are women, hopefully we should see an immediate end to any of the disgusting behaviour that has grown through Activision Blizzard like weeds in an untended garden.
In addition to this, it is quite clear that Bobby Kotick will not be punished for the role he served in cultivating the horrible work environment. In fact it wouldn’t be remiss to mention that he had gotten off far easier than I imagine anyone familiar with the situation had hoped. Instead of being punished, he received a portion of $70bn, money that 99% of the population could not even fathom possessing.
Moreover, supposedly, Bobby Kotick will remain CEO of Activision at least until the deal fully closes. Ultimately, it is quite clear that whilst in many ways Xbox’s purchase of the company is a positive, both financially and morally, there are still many issues within the company that seem to coalesce throughout the entire business.
One can hope that through the guidance of Xbox’s Gaming Leadership Team that we should see significant change. Xbox is now responsible for all of the issues that occur at Activision Blizzard. Hopefully many of the employees who are striking at Raven will see recompense and the employees that were fired unjustly may return to their old jobs, should they still want them.
Moreover, Xbox should hopefully answer the qualms of many of the employees in regards to the horrible work culture. With luck, we should see a major shift in attitude and see a major removal of problematic employees who participated in the horrific and disgusting overtly, offensive sexual behaviour.
It is Xbox’s responsibility now to deal with all of the issues that Activision Blizzard has chosen to forcefully ignore for months. With luck we should see Xbox hopefully do what is: ethically, socially and undisputedly, right.
