Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard

[Morgoth]

Activision Blizzard has been accused of discriminating against "old white guys"​

"Activision placed profits over people by terminating the older, higher paid executives".

News by Vikki Blake Contributor

Published on 6 Jan 2024

A former Activision Blizzard executive has filed a discrimination claim with the company, alleging it of discriminating against "old white guys".

As reported by Law360 and spotted by our sister site, GamesIndustry.biz, the complaint includes allegations against former CEO Bobby Kotick for remarks he made at an unspecified leadership conference in which he reportedly said that the "problem" at ABK was that "there are too many old white guys".

The filing – lodged by a 57-year-old white man who worked at the company from 2014 until he was laid off as part of the company's restructure in late 2023 – says that shortly after hearing these comments, a pair of white executives left "based, at least in part, on Kotick's ageist remarks", adding that "Activision placed profits over people by terminating the older, higher-paid executives".


The executive maintains that he was passed over for promotion after said executives quit even though he was recommended for the position, and said the younger, non-white employee who went on to be his manager created a hostile work environment, which detrimentally impacted the employee's merit-based salary increase.

The executive then filed complaints with HR, accusing the company of failing "to protect Plaintiff from the discriminatory and defamatory accusations" from his colleagues but says his complaint was "ignored and he was not taken seriously".

When the complainant was laid off from a team of 200 in August 2023, he says he was one of seven men aged 47 or older who were made redundant at that time.

The plaintiff further alleges that the company has violated California's whistleblowing protection laws.

The man bringing the legal action asks for lost earnings and compensation for reputational damage, emotional distress, wrongful termination, and damages for the alleged negative impact this has had on his career advancement. He also expects ABK to pay his legal costs.

After its reporting, GI.biz was contacted by Activision Blizzard and referred to its equal employment opportunity policy.

Last month, Activision Blizzard agreed to pay over £44 million to settle a 2021 sex discrimination lawsuit.

Further to an agreement made with the California Civil Rights Department (CCRD) regarding unequal employment practices on the basis of sex, the megacorp has agreed to pay £44.1m ($56m) to settle claims of unequal pay and promotion practices between 2015-2020. £36.85m ($46.75m) will be shared between female claimants who claim that they were unfairly paid, and £7.1m ($9.1m) will cover associated legal fees.

 

[Atlantico]

"Activision placed profits over people by terminating the older, higher paid executives".

On the one hand that's probably true, on the other hand it's those morons who made Activision what it is today.

So firing them is the right call regardless.

 

[DemonKing]

Old, white guys are usually the first shown the door - they're usually the highest paid so represent the biggest savings and it's not like they're likely to suddenly come up with any new innovations/tech in middle age. They certainly don't help if you're keen to do some corporate virtue-signalling either. On the other hand old white guys are good for delivering within existing contexts and designated timeframes and providing guidance to younger staff (hell that's what I do) so still have value especially in a low-risk work environment where reliably delivering results within set expectations is important.

 

[Atlantico]

Old, white guys are usually the first shown the door - they're usually the highest paid so represent the biggest savings and it's not like they're likely to suddenly come up with any new innovations/tech in middle age. They certainly don't help if you're keen to do some corporate virtue-signalling either. On the other hand old white guys are good for delivering within existing contexts and designated timeframes and providing guidance to younger staff (hell that's what I do) so still have value especially in a low-risk work environment where reliably delivering results within set expectations is important.

Isn't "new innovations" crossing a line into the verbose? Anyway innovation and/or new tech is the last thing that is expected from management, middle or otherwise. Management is not ever supposed to have an original idea. That would be chaos.

What one wants from these old white men is experience and knowledge on how to deal with the younger and more inexperienced crowd, keep them productive and delivering results according to plan. Management is less like being a coach for a sportsball team and more like being a gym-teacher.

Firing white old men is missing the point really, firing experienced people is the problem, because they are the backbone of the company. It is not a sign of a healthy upper management if they resort to downsizing management in such an arbitrary way, i.e. downsizing based on wages and/or age. You should downsize based on capability and value to the company, anything else is very counter-productive.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

Firing white old men is missing the point really, firing experienced people is the problem, because they are the backbone of the company. It is not a sign of a healthy upper management if they resort to downsizing management in such an arbitrary way, i.e. downsizing based on wages and/or age. You should downsize based on capability and value to the company, anything else is very counter-productive.

And capability and company value will almost always be in the hands of experienced men, and usually in white men. All of these companies are struggling because their hiring practices have nothing to do with being a good worker, it's all about hiring the most dysgenic thing possible and telling everyone how great you are. Companies lose value for not hiring enough destructive employees these days. It's insane. They have to hire them and put them into places they can do barely any harm (story related stuff usually) or they risk taking the entire business over the drama they cause. What was the company where the HR woman got fired and sued the company over discrimination because a lazy black guy kept getting chewed out by his manager for not doing his job and he cried racism since he was the only negro in his team?

 

[lycanwarrior]

$80 buckaroos for melee weapon in Call of Duty. More than the actual game itself!

Call of Duty and Activision already getting better under Microsoft ownership! /s

 

[Baron Tahn]

Bet a bunch of little cunts just buy it right up and demand more so who wins here?

Was never going to be an improvement for gamers any more than having someone take a shit in your beer and then charge you extra improves the taste.

 

[FreshCorpse]

I remember playing the original CoD on PC back in the 2000s. I was a "hyper realistic" (obviously not) WWII single player campaign, mainly with levels ripped off from major films. There was an amazing mod for it called "Heat of Battle" (can anyone find it online? I can't) that made the multiplayer actually good. I was even in a clan for that mod some point.

Weird that it's about proto-paypig teenagers running around in florescent gimp suits now.

 

[Morgoth]

Call of Dooty, Metal of Honor, Brothers in Arms etc. was the direct answer following the rage popularity of Saving Private Ryan. It gave the vidya muppets and chuds a new lease, all the while original thinkers and risk takers were futher pushed to the margins. Thanks, Steven Gamemountain.

 

[Hellion]

All these overpriced DLC mostly get released because youtubers/streamers buy them and then make videos titled "I BOUGHT COD'S NEW MASSIVELY OP DLC" and plebs watch them and donate shekels, so streamers recoup the money they spent. Many such cases.

 

[Caim]

All these overpriced DLC mostly get released because youtubers/streamers buy them and then make videos titled "I BOUGHT COD'S NEW MASSIVELY OP DLC" and plebs watch them and donate shekels, so streamers recoup the money they spent. Many such cases.

I remember seeing something like this happen with the Joker DLC for the Suicide Squad game: a streamer's chat begged him to just stop grinding for the "free" character already and fork over $10 to immediately unlock him, with one viewer donating the money. It was put to a vote: 75% of the votes told him to bite the bullet already and buy it.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Begged for "more info"? Whom did you beg, what info? This guy can't even articulate basic thoughts in 2 sentences.
Also, worrying about being review bombed due to product specifics is not your job. You're not the CEO. Let Kotik worry, you stupid fuck. This is not your company and you can't even read financial reports.
Review bombed, boo hoo, cry me a river. A million people play it monthly.

OverWatch 2 was a debacle from the start. The only reason they made a sequel from the looks of it is because they weren't happy with the amount and type of microtransactions in the very popular original OverWatch. A lot of the review bombs tend to come from all the decisions surrounding this game, which a lot of these developers didn't have much of a say in... BUT... They're still the developers of that game and that game still isn't earning it's keep. They're bitching about not getting a bonus, but completely fail to see the bigger picture in this, that they're working on a game that's the least profitable one for the company. You might not get a bonus today, but if things don't change, it'll be a paycheck next. So, it might be a good time to update your resume and get it out there now.

What are the names of some big AAA producing game companies that have gone under in the last 10-15 years? Or longer really. Name game companies that are big, failed, and went bankrupt never to be heard from again.

You mean developers or publishers? There've been several developers that shut their doors, like Violition after the Saints Row reboot. Some of them were rolled in to Gearbox, I believe, but Embracer just took an $800,000,000 loss selling Gearbox to Take Two. That was followed by a massive lay off at Gearbox.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Spoke too soon, now they are selling $100 camos in the CoD store! And it's just an old reskin lmao!

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

Taking money from idiots with poor judgement - truly Microsoft is doing God's work on Earth.

 

[Cologno]

TBO, I'm not really seeing the problem. Fleecing idiots does more to reveal the problems in the industry than any logical argument. Besides, idiots gunna idiot, so get some use out of them.

 

[Iucounu]

Not sure if it's the right thread:

At the end of the game, I've often thought "I wish I could give these folks another $10 or $20 because it was worth more than my initial $70 and they didn't try to nickel and dime me every second".

Games like HZD, GoW, RDR2, BG3, Elden Ring, etc. I know $70 is already a lot, but it's an option at the end of the game I wish I had at times. Some games are that special.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Consoomers gotta consoom.

 

[:Flash:]

If someone in the industry reads this, it's only a matter of time before you have to pay extra bucks before you can see the outro.

 

[Elttharion]

Not sure if it's the right thread:

At the end of the game, I've often thought "I wish I could give these folks another $10 or $20 because it was worth more than my initial $70 and they didn't try to nickel and dime me every second".

Games like HZD, GoW, RDR2, BG3, Elden Ring, etc. I know $70 is already a lot, but it's an option at the end of the game I wish I had at times. Some games are that special.

Sometimes I pirate a game and I still want a refund. Also lmao at HZD and GOW, two terrible games.

 

[Morgoth]

LOL. Right after shutting down a couple of studios.

 

[IDtenT]

Elsewhere. Lmao.

 

[:Flash:]

Elsewhere Entertainment was the name of the follow-up studio to Appeal (Outcast), before they went under and much later re-started Appeal.

 

[d1r]

What the fuck are they even doing?

 

[lukaszek]

What the fuck are they even doing?

something else

 

[Modron]

What the fuck are they even doing?

Probably like most studios built in cheap countries by publishers a lot of grunt work on other studios' games.