A wealth of current employees from across all parts of Activision Blizzard have signed the letter that calls Activision Blizzard’s response to the sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit “abhorrent and insulting.” Initially signed by 1,000 current and former employees, the list has now grown to over 2,000, according to CNN Business. “Our company executives have claimed that actions will be taken to protect us, but in the face of legal action – and the troubling official responses that followed – we no longer trust that our leaders will place employee safety above their own interests,” the letter says, per Bloomberg.
For context, Activision executive Frances Townsend described the lawsuit as “factually incorrect, old and out of context” in a statetment. This clearly has not gone down well with the Activision Blizzard staff at large. “To claim this is a ‘truly meritless and irresponsible lawsuit,’ while seeing so many current and former employees speak out about their own experiences regarding harassment and abuse, is simply unacceptable.” The letter claims that responses made by Activision Blizzard leadership and management were “distorted, and in many cases false”, and notes that management was responsible for creating “a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims” and “casts doubt on [the] organisation’s ability to hold abusers accountable”. After the lawsuit went public, World of Warcraft senior system designer Jeff Hamilton revealed that work on the game has been halted as teams navigate through this crisis. In response to the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard brought by the state of California, former president Mike Morhaime and current president J. Allen Brack have issued public and company-focused statements regarding the allegations brought forth in the suit. These responses were also criticized by staff. The full letter can be seen below:
