Hundreds of Activision Blizzard employees gathered in front of the American video game giant’s premises in Irvine, California on Wednesday. This rally was organized to protest against the response deemed insufficient by their leadership after a complaint filed by a California state authority on July 20. The publisher is accused of having allowed a culture of harassment to settle in the company to the detriment of women – who make up barely 20% of the group’s workforce.
During the demonstration, many placards displayed messages of support for the victims of these acts. It was, for example, possible to read “Women’s voices matter” Where “Let’s fight the bad guys in games, let’s fight the bad guys IRL [dans la vraie vie] “. Several people also wore T-shirts with a rainbow-colored Blizzard logo, in reference to the LGBTQI flag, to advocate more inclusiveness within the group, which has nearly 10,000 employees.
Finally, the behavior of the management was also openly criticized. For example, one could see among the demonstrators an employee holding a sign on which one could read: “Bureaucrats who are not accountable to anyone lead to the departure of our best people”.
The entirety of the #ActiBlizzWalkout crowd in front of the gates for Activision Blizzard HQ: https://t.co/TqnRNzFGku
In all, nearly two hundred people were gathered there, according to AFP, while the American daily The Washington Post rather evokes 350 people. The number of telecommuting employees joining the movement was not known.
But in the American video game industry, where unions are almost absent, demonstrations are rare and a sign of strong anger, analyzes the American site Axios. Taking into account the extent of the discontent within it, the Activision Blizzard group had, moreover, previously sent an internal e-mail informing that those who participated in the rally would not be punished and could even benefit from a day off. , explains the site The Verge, specialized in new technologies.
A strong echo online
On social networks, including TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, thousands of Internet users reacted to the movement by relaying the hashtag #ActiBlizzWalkout. Other Internet users wanted to boycott the games from Activision Blizzard studios, which attract an average of 400 million players per month, during the day of July 28. Videographers have, for example, called to stop broadcasting games like Call of Duty, Overwatch Where World of warcraft during the day of mobilization.
For easy reference, here’s a list of games / franchises to avoid tomorrow in solidarity with the Activision Blizzard… https://t.co/78uYsf66Vv
The move didn’t just have repercussions on the players. Members of other studios, such as Riot Games or Warner Bros., also expressed their support for this action. Five hundred Ubisoft employees and former employees even signed a letter to the protesters to display their “Solidarity”. In this document, coming from employees and former employees from 32 different studios of the French company underline the recurrence of such accusations in the video game industry. They thus ask to “Real changes” at Activision Blizzard but also at Ubisoft, shaken by a wave of accusations of sexual and sexist harassment in 2020, and in the sector in general.
In response to the various mobilizations, the president and CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick issued a press release to influence the official discourse of the company and reassure. In the hours leading up to the protest, he first apologized for Activision’s initial response to the complaint filed a week earlier by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, a California state agency responsible for investigate civil law cases.
Indeed, once the complaint was made public, the company had strongly criticized it in a statement which claimed that the accusations “Do not represent the work environment of Activision Blizzard today”. This provoked a burst of outrageous reactions, including a letter signed by hundreds of employees.
This complaint is based, in fact, on numerous testimonies and denounces a series of acts of harassment, discrimination and machismo. Some executives are said to be involved in the accusations, as well as members of the human resources department, who have sometimes heard complaints.
“I want to recognize and thank everyone who has come forward in the past and in the last days. I greatly appreciate your courage ”, therefore reacted Mr. Kotick, July 28, while sorry that the management does not have “Could not provide adequate empathy and understanding”.
The latter then announced a series of measures to combat harassment and discrimination. He advocates both new sanctions, promises better listening, an external audit and even the modification of certain games, accused by employees and players of offering inappropriate content. Proposals that employees have welcomed in a press release published on the IGN website, but which they still consider insufficient.