A petition has been signed by over 1300 Activision Blizzard employees, demanding that CEO Bobby Kotick resigns.
As spotted by Kotaku, a petition by the ABK Workers Alliance – which is made up of Activision Blizzard employees – has gathered signatures from 1300 fellow workers. The document demands that Bobby Kotick “remove himself as CEO of Activision Blizzard” and asks that “shareholders be allowed to select the new CEO without the input of Bobby”.
The petition explains that “we, the undersigned, no longer have confidence in the leadership of Bobby Kotick as the CEO of Activision Blizzard”.
“The information that has come to light about his behaviours and practices in the running of our companies runs counter to the culture and integrity we require of our leadership–and directly conflicts with the initiatives started by our peers.”
The information in question refers to a damning report that alleged Kotick has known of sexual misconduct within Activision Blizzard since 2018. The report also alleges that Kotick intervened to prevent the firing of someone accused of sexual harassment, and also claims that Kotick threatened to have his assistant killed in 2006.
The petition has garnered signatures from senior developers in studios like Sledgehammer Games, Treyarch, Blizzard, Infinity Ward, and more.
While this petition is exclusive to employees, another petition that is open to supporters outside of the company has gathered 11,500 signatures and counting.
“Bobby Kotick has proved that he does not care about his employees, and that he is not fit to be the CEO of Activision Blizzard,” reads the Change.org petition.
“This petition will not guarantee his removal, but it will show him that we are not okay with him blatantly ignoring the cries of his employees…It is absolutely horrendous that someone with such power looks past all the cries of help.”
Kotick has responded to the recent allegations by saying the reports paint “an inaccurate and misleading view of our company, of me personally, and my leadership”.
Activision Blizzard’s board of directors has also said that it “remains confident that Bobby Kotick appropriately addressed workplace issues brought to his attention“.
In other news, Bethesda has confirmed that a patch for Skyrim Anniversary Edition is on the way.
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