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The Activision Blizzard storm rages on

Good morning! This Wednesday, Activision Blizzard is in crisis mode, Microsoft is requiring vaccinations, and Facebook's fight with researchers is heating up.
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As Activision Blizzard's workplace crisis rages on into its third week, the company is trying to try to calm the storm — to little avail. Blizzard President J. Allen Brack, who took the reins back in 2018, resigned yesterday. He's to be replaced by Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra, who will co-lead the studio in a power-sharing agreement some believe further solidifies CEO Bobby Kotick's control over the subsidiary.
Nowhere in Blizzard's statement about Brack's departure does it mention California's explosive sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit at the heart of the saga. The lawsuit, filed last month, resulted last week in a 500-person walkout at Blizzard's headquarters in Irvine. (Among the attendees? None other than Ybarra, the new studio co-head.)
Activision Blizzard so far appears uncommitted to lasting change. The company has made numerous empty gestures aimed at placating employee concerns and salvaging a falling stock price. Many of them seem self-serving.
Stories of misconduct continue to pour out. The initial wave of revelations following news of the lawsuit involved shocking stories, including the so-called "Cosby suite" of disgraced former Blizzard creative director Alex Afrasiabi. Now, as more in the industry continue to speak out, we're starting to see the fuller picture of toxic rot at the heart of Activision Blizzard's culture.
Activision Blizzard addressed the ongoing crisis in its Q2 2021 earnings report and investor call yesterday. "Our work environment, everywhere we operate, will not permit discrimination harassment or unequal treatment. We will be the company that sets the example for this in our industry," Kotick said in the opening of the call.
Despite sorrowful apologies from former company leaders, current management at Activision Blizzard has been tight-lipped. When execs have spoken out, they've often been combative and dismissive. That's beginning to change, as we saw on the investor call. But the company has yet to acknowledge any of the demands made by organizers of last week's walkout, including an end to the forced arbitration agreements that have helped guard many of the company's worst workplace abuses.
Perhaps Activision Blizzard management hopes this will all blow over in time to announce this year's Call of Duty game later this summer. But that's wishful thinking. There's no indication the storm is subsiding, and employees who attended last week's walkout now say, "This is the beginning of an enduring movement."
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