Activision Blizzard Psuedo All-Hands Meeting Seems to Promise More of the Same

On Monday, July 26, Activision held what was supposed to be an all-hands meeting for its staff to address the recent lawsuit against the company and the allegations contained within, according to a source working at Activision, who requested to remain anonymous. Due to an error in scheduling the meeting, only 500 employees were actually allowed to enter the Zoom call with Joshua Taub, one of Activision’s executives. Another meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, presumably with the whole staff this time.

The subject of this meeting was to address the lawsuit being filed against Activision Blizzard by the State of California, and the allegations within, which are extreme, to say the least. First reported by Bloomberg, the lawsuit accuses Activision Blizzard of having a “frat boy culture” brimming with harassment, particularly aimed at women of color working at the company. Those reading the full details of the allegations should be warned that there’s a lot of potentially triggering content there, including sexual assault and suicide. Taub’s answers to employee concerns over this were disappointing at best.

According to our source, Taub started the meeting off by saying that he and Bobby Kotick, Activision’s CEO, “have never seen this,” but that “does not mean this behavior does not happen.” Taub went on to say that for him,  “zero tolerance means claims are investigated properly,” which apparently also means strictly internally. “We don’t publicize all of these claims, we work with the employee and the person who is accused and try to work on a resolution,” Taub said, according to our source.

When asked about unionization by one of the employees, Taub’s answer was again pushing for internal handling of these situations. “The best way for protection is reaching out to your supervisors, hotline and avenues,” Taub allegedly responded, once again pushing for employees to trust in systems that have clearly already failed them. 

Communication between the company and its employees about this situation continues to be fraught at best. When asked how hard it was to write a company apology, Taub simply responded: “We did,” before adding, “I can’t control how everybody in the company responds.” There seems to be a lot of this going around, as Taub also acknowledged that “the note from Fran (Frances Townsend) wasn’t the right communication.” This was an email Townsend, Activision’s Chief Compliance Officer, sent to employees that garnered ire last week. 

Though there were also several mentions of “doing better” and helping employees “find their voice,” it seems Activision is still planning to actively combat the lawsuit being brought against it by the State of California. According to our source, Taub said: “I think the State of California has filed a suit and we said we were gonna fight it.” 

“It will go through a legal process but this is an allegation not a conviction.”

Another meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, and this story will be updated as more information becomes available. 

UPDATE: Over 800 Activision Blizzard employees have signed an open letter to the company’s leadership since the time of publication, calling their response to the lawsuit “abhorrent and insulting,” according to both Polygon and Kotaku.

If you or someone you know has been impacted by harassment or abuse in the industry, please find additional resources below:

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
• RAINN
• Games and Online Harassment Hotline
• Crash Override Network

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