Activision Blizzard has certainly used up a significant amount of goodwill over the last 12 months. Between the sexual harassment lawsuits, employee walkouts, and alleged union-busting, Blizzard is the latest studio to land itself in hot water for its toxic internal culture.

However, Activision Blizzard is pushing back against some of these allegations. While the company acknowledges that there were multiple credible sexual harassment and misconduct cases, it denies accusations that those are company-wide problems. It also denies that executives were aware of or covered up any inappropriate activities, citing the results of an internally-conducted investigation.

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“While there are some substantiated instances of gender harassment,” says Activision, “those unfortunate circumstances do not support the conclusion that Activision senior leadership or the Board were aware of and tolerated gender harassment or that there was ever a systemic issue with harassment, discrimination or retaliation.” Activision further states that its internal audit found no evidence that executives ignored or downplayed reports of sexual harassment. Activision also claims that the investigation found no evidence of executives or employees concealing information related to the harassment allegations. The report also alleges that “media criticism of the Board and Activision Blizzard senior executives as insensitive to workplace matters is without merit.”

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Activision also recruited former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chair Gilbert Casellas to conduct a separate investigation. His findings were included in the report and allegedly matched that of Activision Blizzard’s internal review, uncovering no evidence of systemic harassment at the corporation or its subsidiaries. He also argued that the volume of sexual harassment reports was much lower than one would expect from a corporation the size of Activision Blizzard.

Activision’s report contradicts the allegations from multiple current and former Blizzard employees. Said allegations resulted in the 2021 lawsuits from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and EEOC. The CDFE compared Blizzard’s internal culture to a frat house where many employees were subject to routine sexual harassment. The allegations against Activision Blizzard included so-called “cube crawls” where drunken male employees would harass and grope their female coworkers. There were also reports of male employees regularly coming to work hungover, shifting their duties onto female employees, and openly joking about rape.

The lawsuits also accused the company’s management of giving preferential treatment to white and male employees and retaliating against employees who complained. The initial DEFH lawsuit specifically charged Blizzard Entertainment’s then-president Allen Brack with ignoring multiple credible sexual harassment complaints. Brack subsequently stepped down from his position, and several other high-level Activision Blizzard personnel quit or were fired.

Activision Blizzard reached an $18 million settlement with the EEOC in March. It also agreed to conduct an internal audit and let the EEOC investigate any unresolved sexual harassment claims. However, the original DEFH lawsuit is still pending, as is the SEC investigation launched in September. Only time will tell what new information these inquiries may bring to light.

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Source: Activision Blizzard, PCGamesN