Activision Blizzard released a report detailing an uptick in harassment incidents reported by employees in 2022 after CEO Bobby Kotick claimed the company "did not have a systemic issue" with misconduct against women.
The company released its inaugural transparency report yesterday, showing that it received and investigated 114 reports of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation filed by employees last year. Out of those incidents, investigators substantiated 29 of them, some of which involved multiple employees.
The report was published publicly at the request of stockholders, and comes after Kotick claimed in an interview with Variety that Activision Blizzard never had any issues regarding rampant abuse and harassment towards female employees, despite numerous reports saying otherwise in the last two years — reports he deemed "mischaracterizations." Instead, he blamed "outside forces" for the scandals and took a shot a union drives that have cropped up.
"We’ve had every possible form of investigation done. And we did not have a systemic issue with harassment — ever. We didn’t have any of what were mischaracterizations reported in the media," Kotick said. "But what we did have was a very aggressive labor movement working hard to try and destabilize the company."
Activision Blizzard further stated in the report that it took corrective actions as a result of these harassment incidents, including termination for inappropriate or discriminatory language, physical assault, misgendering, unwanted advances, retaliation, and non-consensual touching.
The transparency report comes after multiple lawsuits were filed against Activision Blizzard since July 2021, including one from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing over allegations of sexual harassment and "frat boy culture," which resulted in some senior developers getting fired, employees and other industry figures calling for Kotick to resign, and the ramping up of union movements.
After The Wall Street Journal published a report later that year alleging the CEO had knowledge of the harassment but ignored and perpetrated it (including an incident in which he left a voicemail threatening to have his assistant killed), he apologized for some of the allegations while denying others.
The report also comes in the midst of Microsoft attempting to close the Activision Blizzard acquisition, which has already been approved by China and the European Commission. It is still awaiting approval from the FTC.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
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