First reported by the , a major chapter in Blizzard's has ended. The California Civil Rights Department (formerly the Department of Fair Employment and Housing) has settled with Activision Blizzard for $54 million, dropping its sexual harassment suit.
In addition to the $54 million paid to the state, Activision Blizzard has set aside $47 million to handle accusations of gender discrimination in pay and promotions. According to the settlement, Gilbert Casellas, a former chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, concluded "there was no widespread harassment or recurring pattern or practice of gender harassment" following an investigation into Activision Blizzard.
In July of 2021, the California Civil Rights Department filed its lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, alleging that the gaming giant had a "frat boy" culture and was a "breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women." In the settlement signed by Activision Blizzard and the California Civil Rights Department, the CRD concedes that there is "no systemic or widespread sexual harassment" at the company.
Former Blizzard Chief Compliance Officer Frances Townsend called the allegations "a distorted and untrue picture of [Activision Blizzard], including factually incorrect, old, and out of context stories—some more [[link]] than a decade ago." Townsend would , but the executive is also notable for having toured the United States' infamous Abu Ghraib torture prison in 2004 while working for the Bush White House. Townsend denied witnessing abuse of prisoners during the tour.
Bloomberg published a report (users may encounter a paywall) corroborating the "frat boy" assessment of Blizzard, while in our own report based on , one said it was "impossible" not to observe misconduct at the company.
In March of 2022, Blizzard with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $18 million, while in October of that year Activision Blizzard was that alleged company management was aware of a manager's yearslong pattern of predation and abuse of [[link]] a female employee.
Amid this controversy, one bright spot has been the historic union activity at some of Activision Blizzard's studios. Despite pushback from the company, the QA developers at (a developer of Warzone, and formerly stewards of the Jedi Knight games) and (formerly Vicarious Visions and a contributor to Diablo 4) successfully unionized. A similar effort at studio Proletariat failed after workers alleged [[link]] management's response made "."
After starting the process in January of 2022, Microsoft to purchase Activision Blizzard this October. Controversial CEO Bobby Kotick will remain at the helm until the end of the year, after which .
Update: A previous version of this article stated that Activision Blizzard had settled a "sexual harassment suit," but the amended lawsuit only regards pay and promotion inequity. That wording has been corrected, and more context for the settlement agreement added.