Activision Blizzard Games Go Silent On Social Media After Accusations

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Content warning: The following article and links contain references to rape, suicide, verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and harassment.

Several Activision Blizzard games and development studios have gone completely silent on social media in the midst of allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. Earlier this week, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing announced it is taking legal action against Activision Blizzard after a two-year-long investigation into the publisher’s workplace practices.

The allegations against Activision Blizzard are numerous, including accusations of unfair pay for female employees and derogatory treatment of working mothers - all said to be encouraged by a "'frat boy' culture" that did little to address any of these issues. In one incident alleged by the lawsuit, an unnamed female employee "committed suicide while on a company trip due to a sexual relationship that she had been having with her male supervisor," sometime after coworkers had shared photos of her genitals during a holiday party. Activision Blizzard executives have since responded to the DFEH's lawsuit with varied statements; in internal emails leaked online, Blizzard president J. Allen Brack promised to meet with staff to address this issue, while Activision Blizzard executive Fran Townsend claimed the accusations included "factually incorrect, old, and out of context stories."

As noted by Reddit user VolleNommer (via TheGamer), several Activision Blizzard-associated Twitter accounts have gone dark in recent days. Accounts for Call of Duty, Overwatch, and developers Treyarch and Raven Software haven’t posted anything new since July 21, the day Bloomberg Law reported on the lawsuit.

In light of this week’s developments, players and industry insiders alike have begun to speak out and demand changes to Activision Blizzard’s company culture and treatment of female employees. Following the reports, Destiny developer Bungie, which formerly worked under Activision on the series, spoke on its "responsibility to acknowledge, reflect, and do what we can to push back on a persistent culture of harassment, abuse, and inequality that exists in our industry."

In addition, World of Warcraft players held an in-game protest to demand real change within the publisher. Others still are calling for boycotts of Activision Blizzard-developed games until something is done to prevent the alleged harassment and mistreatment from happening again. Individual figures within Activision Blizzard have already shared their reactions to the accusations, but it remains to be seen how the company as a whole will operate as the case develops.

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