Yesterday, on July 26, Activision Blizzard held a Zoom call which should have been company-wide but was only attended by 500 employees due a scheduling error. During tha call, Activision chief operating officer Joshua Taub reportedly claimed that neither him nor Bobby Kotick has ever seen the alleged misconduct taking place, although he did admit that “does not mean this behavior does not happen.”
This is coming from an anonymous Blizzard employee who participated in the call. They spoke to UppercutCrit relaying Taub’s alleged answers.
According to the source, Taub insisted on strictly internal investigation into the claims made by DFEH. “We don’t publicize all of these claims, we work with the employee and the person who is accused and try to work on a resolution,” Taub allegedly said.
When one of the employees brought up unionization as a way to address the company’s culture, Taub reiterated these issues should be handled internally. “The best way for protection is reaching out to your supervisors, hotline and avenues.”
UppercutCrit‘s source also claims Taub admitted that “the note from Fran [Frances Townsend] wasn’t the right communication.”
The bottom line, however, seems to still be that Activision is not pleading guilty. According to UppercutCrit‘s source, Taub said: “I think the State of California has filed a suit and we said we were gonna fight it. It will go through a legal process but this is an allegation not a conviction.”
After the meeting, around 1,000 current and former Activision Blizzard employees have signed a letter that calls the corporate response to the sexual harassment allegations “abhorrent and insulting.”
Another meeting to presumably be attended by all of the staff this time is scheduled for today.