Activision Blizzard’s Diablo IV is a hit. The sport bought extra copies throughout its pre-launch interval than every other Blizzard Leisure title earlier than it. Gamers have already spent 93 million hours with the sport, and counting. Even earlier than its full launch this week, critics had been praising its design and story. It’s a uncommon optimistic consequence for an organization that’s been mired in controversy.
Since 2021, Activision Blizzard’s place in headlines has been subsequent to allegations of harassment and information of burgeoning union efforts. The online game trade has no clear reply on the way to reconcile its profitable AAA video games—years-long inventive undertakings, made potential by groups of lots of—with the circumstances underneath which they’re created. Gamers should navigate this, too, when deciding whether or not or not they wish to purchase a title that comes from Activision Blizzard.
That definitely doesn’t imply the corporate isn’t making an attempt to assist gamers overlook. Forward of Diablo IV’s launch, CEO Bobby Kotick has been making the injury management rounds. In a latest interview with Selection, the CEO claimed Activision Blizzard, which paid $18 million simply final yr to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Alternative Fee, did not have a harassment downside. As a substitute, Kotick claimed, it was “mischaracterizations reported by the media” and “exterior forces”—particularly the rising unionization efforts inside its studios—making the corporate look dangerous. “We didn’t have a systemic concern with harassment — ever,” Kotick, who reportedly knew about harassment for years, informed the outlet. “However what we did have was a really aggressive labor motion working onerous to attempt to destabilize the corporate.”
The identical day Selection printed its story, Activision Blizzard’s board launched its very first transparency report during which it claims “even one occasion of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation is one too many.” Per the report, the corporate obtained 114 claims of harassment in 2022. A complete of 36 of these had been substantiated; the corporate acknowledged that 29 of the claims “represented conduct by our workers, two represented conduct by contingent employees, and 5 had been non-employees, together with, for instance, esports gamers and testers.”
Harassment isn’t the one downside on the recreation improvement big. A Washington Publish report final yr detailed brutal crunch circumstances on the firm because the crew behind Diablo IV stared down lengthy hours to satisfy the sport’s launch date. That report got here at a time when Activision Blizzard was seeking to full its acquisition by Microsoft across the time of Diablo IV’s launch. That acquisition has since been delayed following considerations from US and UK regulators that would take months to resolve.
This additionally occurred amidst ongoing unionization efforts at Activision Blizzard, which sprang up as employees grew more and more uninterested in poor office practices. These efforts resulted within the creation of two unions on the firm (a 3rd effort sprung up at a sister studio earlier than organizers withdrew their petition to unionize).
“I’m not like different CEOs which are anti-union,” Kotick mentioned within the Selection interview, pointing to his membership with the Display Actors Guild—American Federation of Tv and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) as proof of his sentiments. (He joined the union as a part of his cameo within the 2011 sports activities drama Moneyball.) “If we now have workers who desire a union to signify them, they usually imagine that that union goes to have the ability to present them with alternatives and enhancements to their work expertise, I’m all for it.”
However Activision Blizzard has but to barter a contract with its unions. Final October, the Nationwide Labor Relations Board discovered benefit that the corporate withheld raises from members of a bargaining committee at subsidiary Raven Software program. Moreover, some workers inside these unions have described a bitter combat each step of the way in which.
Which brings us to the launch of Diablo IV. Even amidst all of the turmoil at Activision Blizzard, the sport’s devs hit their deadline. And their work has produced a critically-praised recreation. In earlier years, devs on the firm have requested followers to not boycott video games in response to what’s occurring on the firm. Within the lead-up to Diablo IV’s launch, there have been questions on whether or not or not followers would heed that decision or if the controversies surrounding the corporate would impression gross sales. The previous appears to be the case—making the sport’s creators look good, and Activision Blizzard look a bit higher.