Activision Blizzard leadership has reportedly told employees that the company’s “zero-tolerance policy” will not be applied to CEO Bobby Kotick because it has “no evidence” to prove recent claims made against him.
In a company-wide meeting, Game Developer (thanks, VGC) reports that leadership within Activision Blizzard answered several pre-screened questions from employees.
One of these questions asked if Activision Blizzard’s recently-announced zero tolerance policy would be applied to Bobby Kotick, after a damning report claimed that he allegedly knew about sexual misconduct within the company since 2018. The report also claimed that Kotick intervened to protect a studio head from being fired for sexual harassment, and allegedly threatened to have his assistant killed.
Addressing the question, leadership responded that Activision Blizzard did not “have evidence” to back these claims because they happened over 10 years ago.
Game Developer also reports that Activision Blizzard allegedly extended the studio’s Thanksgiving break to a full week after learning that the Wall Street Journal report about Bobby Kotick would be published that week.
Since the report alleging Kotick’s awareness of sexual misconduct was published this week, there have been repeated calls for Kotick to step down. The allegations against Kotick caused over 200 Activision Blizzard employees to conduct a walkout, whilst company shareholders have also called for the CEO – and the board’s two longest-serving directors – to retire by the end of the year.
Addressing this week’s allegations, Kotick released a statement that said the report “paints an inaccurate and misleading view of our company, of me personally, and my leadership”.
This week, Jen Oneal – Blizzard’s former co-head – allegedly said that she was only offered equal pay with fellow co-head Mike Ybarra after she handed in her resignation.
In other news, Ed Sheeran has revealed that he will be performing some of his biggest hits in an exclusive Pokémon Go concert this month.
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