Activision Blizzard sued for workplace ‘frat boy culture’

As time goes on, it seems as though nearly every major video game publisher has suffered from toxic workplace cultures, filled with harassment and more. Following on from allegations levied against Ubisoft, Quantic Dream and more, it seems Activision Blizzard has suffered from equally bad, if not even worse issues within the company.

Warning: This article covers a number of possibly triggering topics.

As reported by Bloomberg, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has sued Activision Blizzard for fostering a ‘frat boy culture’ which has involved “constant sexual harassment, unequal pay, and retaliation” towards female employees.

This follows on from a two-year investigation, which discovered that not only were female employees at Activision Blizzard discriminated against when it comes to terms and conditions of employment, but they would also be subjected to harassment from male employees who would engage in drunken “cube crawls” while also openly making rape jokes, delegating work to female employees in order to play video games and more.

One of the worst cases saw one female employee take her own life on a company trip with a male colleague, after reportedly being “subjected to intense sexual harassment prior to her death, including having nude photos passed around at a company holiday party.”

All of this points to many issues which need to be addressed immediately, and as more time goes on, it seems as though every upturned stone within the video games industry uncovers another set of ugly truths. Hopefully this prevalent behaviour is wiped out across the board as quickly as possible.

KitGuru says: Are you surprised by this? What do you think needs to be done in order to fix this issue? How should Activision Blizzard respond? Let us know down below.

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