Money talks.
For what it’s worth, no matter what the board is considering, they would still put out this statement, if only to reassure the market. They could be furiously searching for his replacement and negotiating his departure package now for all we know.
Those types of parties were extremely common at the time. Not a great look today, but hardly unusual. If that’s the extent of her sexual harassment, well, boo-hoo. I assume there’s more to her story that wasn’t disclosed yet.
As for her pay, that was pretty stupid on Activision’s part. We have an example of a man doing the exact same job yet paid more.
Another nugget from the WSJ piece.
Today, somehow, this email has returned and become even more explosive, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that Townsend didn’t even write it. Besieged Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick did. The story says that Kotick, who “approves most internal companywide emails, as well as media responses”, drafted the email himself, and then directed that it be sent under Townsend’s name, likely because she was one of the few women executives at a company run predominantly by men.
An Activision rep responding to the WSJ’s reporting says Kotick now “takes responsibility for the incident and regrets it”, and adds “Ms. Townsend should not be blamed for this mistake.” If you remember at the time, Kotick criticised the email as having been “tone deaf”, despite the fact that it now turns out he wrote it himself .
That is some fucked up shit.
I just re-read that email and it seems fine. Corporate, but fine. What about it was deranged? I thought it was the original response, where they said the government was completely out of line, etc, but no.
Edit: Oh wait, that is the email they’re referring to. Nevermind.
For no apparent reason, I am suddenly reminded of studies that indicate corporate CEOs are somewhere around 10x as likely as the population in general to exhibit traits associated with psychopathy.
(disclaimer, re: dubious value of much of social science stats, goes here)
Man, I really missed the boat when I bailed on Activision games over the Hong Kong thing.
-Tom
Enormous corporation led by bloated plutocrat is fucking evil.
News at 11.
Yeah, but unfortunately the legion of COD fanbois, Incel fellow-travelers, and the usual misogynist asses will probably rally to Kotick’s defense. Hell, those trogs probably view his actions as net positives.
I can’t remember the last time I played an ActiBlizz game either. Definitely from before that, but I guess that made it easy to boycott them as I’m not their target market anymore.
The only game of theirs that interests me right now is Call of Duty: Vanguard, but I won’t play it.
Even without all the China and harassment issues, they completely pissed me off with Modern Warfare in 2019.
Oh man, that was a great re-read, Nick.
(And not just because it’s funny to see someone else taking the guff for a two-star review for a change!)
-Tom
I believe I read that Vanguard was 6 hours of un-fun.
The last COD I played was BLOPS2 back in 2012.
Vanguard is superb. It’s a very strong campaign and mulitplayer game.
The thing (to me at least) about COD games is that they do their schtick very well. If you like it, especially the multiplayer, they are one of if not the gold standard for that sort of play. If you aren’t enamored of their particular angle, and especially if single-player campaigns are your thing, it’s pretty easy to pass on anything COD.
It’s not really about “good” or “bad,” so much as it is “does this scratch the itch?”
Amid yesterday’s explosive allegations that CEO Bobby Kotick was aware “for years” of abuse at Activision Blizzard, additional reports emerged that former Blizzard co-lead Jennifer Oneal wanted to resign in part due to issues that included being paid less than her male counterpart, Mike Ybarra. Ybarra has now told Blizzard employees he and Oneal asked for pay parity together, but Oneal says she was offered an equal contract only after resigning from the role.
Yesterday, Ybarra responded to allegations in internal messages separately confirmed by multiple Blizzard employees. The messages, screenshots of which were viewed by IGN, were posted in a public Slack channel and directed to Blizzard employees.
“Hello Blizzard, please see the email I sent this morning. I know many leaders plan to meet with their teams throughout the day. This is a difficult time for all of us, myself included. I have been asked and want to make it clear: Jen and I shared with management that we wanted to be paid the same to co-lead Blizzard together,” Ybarra wrote.
“As a leader, equality in its broadest sense is something I 100% stand behind. As a team, I share our desire for change and growth. I’m committed to fostering that with all of you to make Blizzard what we all want it to be. I will be sending out a video shortly to all of Blizzard. Thank you and know that I am processing today’s news — and struggling in areas like many of you.”
When another employee expressed confusion as to why leadership would reject the request from Blizzard’s two co-leads, Ybarra added additional context to his comments. “Jen and I were both on existing contracts. I ran [Battle.net & Online Products] and she ran [Vicarious Visions] so our pay was different. The first time both Jen and I were offered a new contract, it was the same across both of us for the new co-leader of Blizzard roles, so our compensation was going to be the same.”
Ybarra’s response appears to be an attempt to explain part of the Wall Street Journal’s earlier report, in which Oneal was said to have sent a letter to Activision Blizzard’s legal division a month after taking on the role, alleging that she was paid less than Ybarra while being “tokenized, marginalized, and discriminated against.” Oneal tendered her resignation earlier this month, shocking many employees who regarded her as a positive force within the company.
However, Oneal seemingly sought to clarify the situation further, adding details that Ybarra had not mentioned. In additional conversations viewed by IGN, Oneal responded forcefully to Ybarra’s comments, saying she didn’t want to be involved “in a debate” on Slack, and that she hadn’t received an equivalent offer until after she had tendered her resignation.
“When Mike and I were placed in the same co-lead role, we went into the role with our previous compensation, which was not equivalent. It remained that way for some time well after we made multiple rejected requests to change it to parity,” she wrote. It remains unclear as to why Activision Blizzard rejected those requests.
She continued, “While the company informed me before I tendered my resignation that they were working on a new proposal, we were made equivalent offers only after I tendered that resignation.” (Emphasis Oneal’s)
The eternal story.
Male: “I didn’t see anything wrong. I thought we were cool?”
Female: “No, we were not ‘cool’ you ass. I was complaining the whole time.”