The Activision Blizzard lawsuit explained
Since the news of the Activision Blizzard lawsuit broke on July 21, the gaming world has been rocked by the allegations made in the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing’s (DFEH) investigation into the publisher.
Content warning: the following article will discuss matters relating to sexual harassment and suicide.
The lawsuit detailed claims of a "frat boy" culture at Activision Blizzard, as well as noting in the lawsuit that “female employees are subjected to constant sexual harassment" and that "effective remedial measures" had not been taken by the company in response to these complaints.
Activision Blizzard’s initial response to the lawsuit had called it "inaccurate" and "distorted", which led to a response from over 3,000 developers at Activision Blizzard, who signed an open letter criticizing the statement and staging a strike on July 28.
As the situation develops, we’ll be updating this story to explain what the Activision Blizzard lawsuit is and how the publisher is responding to it.
What the lawsuit alleges
The California DEFH’s lawsuit, which you can read in full here, goes into specific detail about an alleged "frat boy" culture and found evidence that "Defendants discriminated against female employees in terms and conditions of employment, including compensation, assignment, promotion, termination, constructive discharge, and retaliation". The DFEH also claims to have found evidence of women being sexually harassed and that the "Defendant failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent lawful discrimination, harassment, or retaliation". It also alleges to have found evidence that Activision Blizzard paid female employees less than male employees for similar work.
The details of the lawsuit are stark. It starts by disclosing that only roughly 20% of the workforce are women, with top leadership exclusively white and male, and that women who reach a broadly similar level are paid less than them. The lawsuit then says that "women are promoted more slowly and terminate them more quickly compared to their male counterparts", which it claims forces women to leave the company.
It then details the "frat boy" culture, including the practice of "cube crawls", where male employees would drink "copious amounts of alcohol as they 'crawl' their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior towards female employees". It then claims that male employees would turn up to work "proudly" hungover, delegate tasks to female employees while playing games for a long period of time, and it also alleges that male employees joke about rape.
The lawsuit goes on to describe how this has created a "breeding ground" for sexual harassment, with "high-ranking executives and creators engaged in blatant sexual harassment without repercussions". It is then highlighted that a female employee took her own life while on a business trip.
The suit then describes that the company's HR department was ineffective, as HR personnel "were known to be close to alleged harassers". Employee complaints were allegedly not kept confidential, which lead to retaliation such as female employees being "deprived of work on projects, unwillingly transferred to different units, and selected for layoffs".
It’s also revealed in the lawsuit that the DFEH tried to “resolve the matter without litigation”, but attempts to resolve this with Activision Blizzard in early July were unsuccessful.
They’re now asking for a trial by jury, as well as relief of compensatory and punitive damages; unpaid wages, liquidated damages, and other remedies and penalties available under the USA’s federal Equal Pay Act; injunctive relief; declarative relief; equitable relief; prejudgement interest; attorney’s cost for the claimant; and other relief the court deems just and proper.
Activision’s response
In response to the lawsuit, Kelvin Liu, director of corporate communications, told CNN that the company was taking the allegations seriously and had launched internal investigations for the claims made. Liu said that "we value diversity and strive to foster a workplace that offers inclusivity for everyone. There is no place in our company or industry, or any industry, for sexual misconduct or harassment of any kind.
Liu went on, however, to suggest that the state of California's investigation and the subsequent lawsuit was "inaccurate" and "distorted," saying that "the picture the DFEH paints is not the Blizzard workplace of today. Over the past several years and continuing since the initial investigation started, we've made significant changes to address company culture and reflect more diversity within our leadership teams."
A similar statement was also issued to Bloomberg Law.
Open letter from Activision Blizzard staff
Some of the comments made by Activision Blizzard leadership after the lawsuit was filed were labeled "abhorrent and insulting" in an open letter that has now been signed by more than 3,000 members of staff.
The letter (via Bloomberg) stated that signatories "believe these statements have damaged our ongoing quest for equality inside and outside of our industry. Categorizing the claims that have been made as 'distorted, and in many cases false' creates a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims". The letter went on to call for "immediate corrections [...] from the highest level of our organization," as well as "official statements that recognize the seriousness of these allegations and demonstrate compassion for victims of harassment and assault."
Bobby Kotick's statement
Following Activision Blizzard's public response to the lawsuit and the subsequent petition, on July 27, the company's CEO, Bobby Kotick, issued a public statement addressed to all of his employees.
In that statement, Kotick said that it had been "a difficult and upsetting week," and that he wanted "to recognize and thank all those who have come forward in the past and in recent days."
Kotick also stated that Activision Blizzard is "taking swift action to be the compassionate, caring company you came to work for and to ensure a safe environment. There is no place anywhere at our company for discrimination, harassment, or unequal treatment of any kind. We will do everything possible to make sure that together, we improve and build the kind of inclusive workplace that is essential to foster creativity and inspiration."
To that end, Kotick announced that he had asked a law firm "to conduct a review of our policies and procedures to ensure that we have and maintain best practices to promote a respectful and inclusive workplace." The law firm, Washington D.C.'s WilmerHale, was to being work immediately, and employees were encouraged to reach out "on a confidential basis" if they had had "an experience you believe violates our policies or in any way made you uncomfortable in the workplace."
The CEO also pledged to take five immediate actions as part of a commitment to long-lasting change. They include:
1 - Providing employee support by investigating "each and every claim and providing more senior staff and resources to the Compliance and Employee Relations teams;
2 - Listening sessions to provide safe spaces for employees to speak out and share areas for improvement;
3 - Personnel changes in which "anyone found to have impeded the integrity of our process for evaluating claims and imposing appropriate consequences will be terminated.
4 - Changes to hiring practices to ensure "all hiring managers [...] have diverse candidate slates for all open positions
5 - Changes to remove content that employee and player communities have flagged as "inappropriate" from Activision Blizzard's games.
Activision Blizzard staff walkout
Activision Blizzard employees then began planning strike action, ahead of a walkout that took place at 10AM PT on August 28, outside Blizzard's headquarters in Irvine, California.
The entirety of the #ActiBlizzWalkout crowd in front of the gates for Activision Blizzard HQ: pic.twitter.com/TqnRNzFGkuJuly 28, 2021
Ahead of the walkout, organizers released a statement (via Axios reporter Megan Farokhmanesh) saying that "while we are pleased to see that our collective voices [...] have convinced leadership to change the tone of their communications," Kotick's message "fails to address critical elements at the heart of employee concerns. The statement outlines four major issues; the end of forced arbitration for all employees; worker participation in the oversight of hiring and promotion policies; the need for greater pay transparency; and employee selection of a third-party audit of HR and other company processes.
Organizers went on to say that yesterday's walkout "is not a one-time event," and "is the beginning of an enduring movement in favor of better labor conditions for all employees, especially women, in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups."
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