Activision Blizzard: CEO Bobby Kotick apologizes after employee protests

After the Activision Blizzard company was denounced by the DFEH, there were various public statements that we were able to read on the web: well, after the protests of the employees, the public apologies from the CEO Bobby Kotick also arrived

The complaint by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) towards Activision Blizzardaccusing her of discrimination and sexual harassment, in particular against female employees. Following this news, there have been many public statements by managers and former employees: among all these the silence of the CEO Bobby Kotick, who so far had not yet made any public statement. Well, an open letter was recently published from Bobby Kotick addressed to his employees, containing his apologies and the measures the company will take for the future. Below we reconstruct the story.

The apologies of Bobby Kotick, spokesperson for Activision Blizzard, explained in their context

After the accusations made against Activision Blizzard by the DFEH, there have been various events before Bobby Kotick’s apology arrives. Moving over the countless statements of ex-employees and managers who dissociated themselves, saying they were totally unaware of what happened, they were important the company’s public statements, expressed through the deputy executive director Frances Townsend, who described the allegations as “Distorted and false”. This position was also confirmed with an email sent to all the staff, which however later became public.

This led to more than a thousand company employees signing an open letter from staff to the company’s management, published via Kotaku, in which the company’s responses to the complaint were defined as “Aberrant and offensive”. Only after these events did CEO Bobby Kotick apologize. However, these apologies come at a time that we could define convenient. The shares of Activision Blizzard in fact (which we remember being listed on the stock exchange) had managed to remain stable in recent days: they began to decline only after the publication of the open letter by the employees, causing losses on the stock exchange that the CEO probably couldn’t ignore.

In any case, we report below the words written by Kotick in his apology letter:

It has been a difficult and upsetting week. I want to thank everyone who has come forward both in the past and in the last few days. I appreciate your courage. Every voice matters and we will do a better job of listening to you, now and in the future. Our initial responses to our problems and concerns were, frankly, in bad taste. It is imperative to listen to all points of view and respect the feelings of those who have been mistreated in any way. I’m sorry we didn’t provide the right empathy and understanding

At the end of the letter, the various were also presented measures that will be adopted in the future to counter these dynamics: these measures are the continuation of support for employees, the establishment of listening sessions, any staff changes, the adoption of new practices in hiring and finally the removal of inappropriate content in their games.

If you want to stay up to date on all the most important news on Activision’s plans and on the entire videogame sector, we invite you to stay tuned to the pages of TechGameWorld.com. If you prefer to buy game keys at discounted prices, you can do so through our link to Instant Gaming.