Bobby Kotick is well-known for being the former CEO of Activision Blizzard as well as for having multiple lawsuits pinned against him by former employees.These lawsuits range from sexual harrassments suits from former employees to deliberate gender discrimination, fostering a ‘frat boy’ culture for several years. The company was recently further publicized as being a part of one of the largest acquisitions of all time by gaming conglomerate Microsoft. Unfortunately, despite the many people who have bravely come forward to be a part of these lawsuits, Kotick himself continues to dismiss them as ‘fake.’
More specifically, he made these allegations on the Grit podcast towards the petition signed by Activision Blizzard staff asking him to step down. He continued to dismiss the claims by these employees wit hthe following,
“I can tell you exactly what happened. The Communication Workers of America [CWA] union started looking at technology. They kept losing because they represented the News Guild, Comcast, and they realised they were losing members at a really dramatic rate, so they gotta figure out: how do they get new union members? So they first targeted a bunch of different businesses – Google, some other tech companies, Tesla and SpaceX, and us. It’s the power of unions. I didn’t really understand this until we went through this process. They were able to get a government agency, the EEOC [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] and a state employment agency called the Department of Fair Employment and Housing [DFEH], to file fake lawsuits against us and Riot Games making allegations about the workplace that didn’t… weren’t true, but they were able to do this.”
He continued to explain that it’s common for people who work in awesome conditions say that they’re being harrassed.. He genuinely feels that these people banded together, hired a PR firm, and created lies on a basis that they wanted to attack the company for additional money. Personally, I don’t think I would complain about anytihng if the conditions were actually that great.
Hopefully, the lawsuits will bear fruit and he’ll be witness to the karma that can happen towards those who treat others like trash. Bobby Kotick is no longer a part of Activision Blizzard, though it appears that he doesn’t plan on leaving the gaming limelight any time soon; at least, if he has anything to say about it. There are many in the gaming space who simply wish he was no longer within it.
“Something tells me people like him are why the lawsuits exist.”
It’s unclear what Kotick’s next move will be, though it’s likely that with the lawsuits still ongoing, we will be hearing more of his opinions soon. Considering that all of his opinions aren’t very great, we look forward to expressing our deep criticism of them.
