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@@davidm.schreckii1426 I'd rather have 900+ devil horns on all of old Kotick's photos. Just covering his whole body on all of them so we don't have to look at him anymore.
Like which ones? It's really rare to find a big publisher that isn't - because none of them are your friend, you're not their client, you're a customer to be charged and ripped off as much money as they can get. Because their only job is to make profit for the shareholders, everyone else is extra.
@@PAcifisti If I was a shareholder, I would be especially pissed about all of this. It's no wonder both companies have been sucking lately with stuff like this.
@Wah Especially Monoloth soft. Not only do they have a good balance of Male to Female workers, but they make sure employees don't overwork themselves and don't allow them to take work home.
"The fact that [locks on lactation doors] wasn't implemented earlier..." Yeah, bad. But the fact that locks on the doors NEEDED to be implemented is the entire problem. Those blokes should have been fired.
Yeah... absolutely. Off topic: This reminds me of a person talking about how schools in the US should be redesigned to make school shootings less lethal as possible... He completely misses the point... school shootings happen in dysfunctional societies... his society needs to be looked at and fixed... then there isn't a need to design schools with active shooters in mind. :/
@@isturboot1659 Maybe. But the issues ongoing here, and the lawsuit, indicate that people like this have absolutely NOT been fired, hence the ongoing problems.
There's some sad parallels between the idea that lactation rooms need locks on the doors, and the idea that women shouldn't go out in revealing clothing or drink alcohol at a party if they wish to avoid being assaulted. "Solutions" to problems that should not require a solution because they shouldn't be problems in the first place.
yeah, and if you've lived long enough you would've heard of men being creepy around breastfeeding women even in the workplace. I swear it's probably been less then half a decade that I've heard of a woman having to scream for a man to leave. It just piles on for blizzard.
Hard to believe the executives are still playing the whole, "ignore it until people forget about it." The unfortunate thing is people probably will. They will still buy COD. Nothing will change. There is money to be made.
If people find the products worth purchasing then yeah of course. It’s not like people refuse to buy Apple products or anything from Walmart because of a lack of morality within those corporations.
I for one am proud to say I have had, and still hold an unbroken boycott on Activision/Blizzard since about 2006. And JJR, Yes, it's exactly like that. If a corporation has a lack of morality, I in fact WILL refuse to buy products from them. That's the whole idea behind a boycott.
Yeah, same here. Haven't bought a Blizzard game since that mess, but now I'm also hoping for that entire company and all their games to just completely crash and burn.
These aren't crimes is the thing. These are all civil violations. The only legal ramifications will be fines and possible sanctions. That's why it's a lawsuit, and not an indictment.
@@Droogie128 the lawsuit could potentially lead to criminal charges being brought against certain individuals but let's be honest, it probably won't. The "justice" system exists to keep us regular Joes and Jills in line, not to punish to rich for breaking the law.
@@sixstringedthing Nothing really listed is an actual crime, that's the issue. Sexual harassment is a civil infraction. Now, if someone committed sexual battery or something, that would be criminal. However, that isn't mentioned. Civil cases are much easier to win than criminal. Criminal requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Civil only requires a preponderance of evidence.
@@Droogie128 Groping without consent is sexual assault, and is mentioned in several occasions in the lawsuit. I do agree that It's possible these won't actually lead to criminal charges though.
Good on them for not lacking in conviction. Don't sell yourselves short, devs. EVERY cog, every belt, rotor, etc. in the machine has an important role.
according to Ray Kassar the lead designer, creator and coder is no more important than the factory workers assembly the Atari cartridges. Nuttin' has changed in 45 years dawg.
Except the poor girl who works all day in a china factory for 5 winnie the pooh dollars a day to make your shoes. Nobody gets offeded about that. If you want capitalism and always back it up, well here it is. There is no such thing as equal pay in capitalism.
Sadly I think this will be settled behind doors and the company will go on with changes but the ones that must be punished will get just a slap on the wrist, I don't think bobby will be affected much.
@@gapinzonr Sadly I think you are right. They will simply (and no doubt grudgingly) pay whatever is required to make it all just "go away". I really hope that we are both proven wrong in the coming months, but I honestly can't see it happening.
EA, while no sexual harassment has been shown, (at least non that we know of) has had cases of employees being abused with crunch time. Anthem had really bad development conditions for Bioware staff.
@@samb123078 I can't believe people are still wanting to have thier stock it's quite obvious Activision blizzard is going downhill every year, would of sold long before now tbh
I feel for WoW and other players. Giving up a MMO is hard. That said canceled subs and no cash shop spending is what management and investors will notice.
@@ishakrahuya what do u mean it can't be sold that's not how stocks work you sell them when u want to last I remembered they exchange them or whatever. Idk how they can't be sold, people sell stocks like that on Wallstreet all the time. Your suppose to be able to sell them whenever you want because your basically investing by gambling and your suppose to be able to get your take whenever you want.
@@misterzygarde6431 I'd love to see Activision go up in smoke. Fuck the IPs, I just want to see this whole charade of a company end (though if we are talking about IPs and this is gonna sound odd, give Crash and Spyro to Capcom or Wayforward. Someone you can do retro revival well.∆
@@thegreygoblin5165 I actually had the idea of giving Crash and Spyro to Capcom too, though also hand them the Skylanders, and Tony Hawk games along with Toys for Bob and Beenox.
Imagine going to a lactation room as a guy and just standing there watching women as they breastfeed to the point they need to yell you out of it. Just. What. The. Hell? Of course, this is not the worst of the allegations but it just blows my mind. If they just wanted to see boobs, there's plenty on the internet (and given how often it seems they were allowed free time to play video games, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't delve into adult entertainment while in the workplace as well) but this shows the absolute lack of respect, the will to demean those women and how non-frowned upon it was for them to engage in that kind of nauseating behavior in their work culture. I have no words.
The same can apply to all the times they harass women, physically or no. Like, they could _easily_ just go to a corner and raise their blood pressure to pixels on a screen. It alleviates their needs just the same, if not better, and - follow me on this one - _doesn’t_ cause people to file lawsuits against them. Like, how down *abysmal* can you be? They would rather risk their company, livelihood, and time not on a blacklist or behind bars for something they can basically find on safe search off Google images? Come on. Do better. “B-but muh power dynamics!” Yeah, here’s a life hack: you can also get power by attaining an IQ within at least the double digits. And that has the added bonus of not making everyone else unquestionably hate you!
Its kind of amazing to me that there is a room specifically for this at the same company that 1) does not promote women bc they can reproduce, and 2) does not do ANYTHING, AT ALL to discourage men from sexually harassing women at the company
When a CEO fires 800 employees when making record profit, when the CEO take bonuses despite missing objective while senior devs have hard time making ends meet. You know it s rotten
Goes to a hacking conference wearing a "I'm a Hacker" t-shirt. Is asked if they like getting their limbs and head hacked off. Yeah, it doesn't work. People don't do that. What is wrong with these freaks who work for Blizzard?
@@davexmit It is still up to the individual to decide whether it is appropriate to go with the innuendo (as we learned from Blizzard, the answer is clearly 'no') or do the smart thing and keep your mouth shut. If I were to see someone wearing such a shirt, I'd likely chuckle, make a mental joke if I felt like it, but otherwise keep my lips sealed. There's nothing positive to be gained from going there.
@@sarlon51 You do know what the consequences of that purge action would be? I'd say that the end result will be a lot of employees, the normal ones, not the higher-up stuff, being let go in droves. The top management will just take their golden parachutes and land safely, while everyone else will have a free fall moment.
@@pjotrsavitski Its not the ground level employee's that are the problem though, they are the victims. You can change out the ground level staff a thousand times over and nothing would ever change. Its the upper management that needs to be purged, including and starting with the CEO.
@@sarlon51 Sure, I'm not objecting that ground level people have no control over the situation. What I meant was that purging the higher level people will have consequences and could result in company either shrinking or disappearing altogether. I'm not famiar with the financial situation, though it seems that if investors pull out, then there will be a lot of mayhem. Higher ups are in a better position to go through these turbulent times.
Having worked there for roughly three years, I am not even *remotely* surprised that this is happening. Bullying there is common. Their attendance policies are absurd. I could go on about all the nonsensical shit they do internally (or at least did while I was there) but I wouldn't want to be sued.
I worked for Nintendo, EA, Blizzard and The Whitehouse and I can tell you that their policies are absurd and incredibly oppressive. I could go on in further detail, but I don't want them to sue me even though I'm completely anonymous, so I will leave this as vague as possible.
@@rosesweetcharlotte Hi! They were pretty atrocious, but they may very well have changed by now. (There were certainly enough people who hated them.) If you were more than five minutes late, for any reason, it went on your employee record semi-permanently; they eventually changed the policy to the point where it would fall off after a few months rather than yearly, but it was still absurd. ALL absences of ANY kind required the use of FMLA leave; you COULD request vacation time, but would often be denied outright, either because (a) the phone and ticket queues were backed up for hours on end because senior leadership kept laying dozens to hundreds of people off at a time as cost-cutting measures, or (b) because a manager just didn't like you and didn't have to be overseen by anyone. The funny thing is that some of this could easily have been a misinterpretation of policy, either on my part or the part of any given manager - but it was impossible to actually find out for sure, as every single manager in the company did things differently and had their own interpretation of written rules. And - like I said - they could apply them however they wanted, because nobody ever called them out on their behavior.
Tbh, it's good it continues. The internet and especially gaming community has proven time and time again that they have short term memory loss and once something is out of the news they are fine with the status quo continuing. Nobody gave a fuck about the fact that Riot is in an ongoing lawsuit about exactly this kinda bullshit until it was dug up again in the wake of all this. This is how companies operate, they hope it quickly goes out of the news and can get away with some promises. No news outlet will be dogged enough to do check-ins on regular basis see if longterm changes actually happen, they'll rather hype up the next big game of said company.
@@masha8770 Greg Street left as lead systems designer at Blizzard to go be the VP at Riot. And guess what!? He's in the Facebook group chat from 2013 that talks about rounding up the "hot chixxx" for the Cosby Suite. So the situation at Riot makes sense. They hired a sexual predator to be their VP.
This is absolutely disgusting and shameful. Clean house and fire all those involved starting from the top the CEO. I hope Activision's stock drops like a stone anchored to someone's feet like the mob would make a problem disappear.
Best thing that should happen is that the higher ups go to jail shutdown both companies and sell the ips to someone else, I don't give a shit if it's EA just do something.
It's crazy to see the disconnect between employees and executives and how the executives get confused when their viewed resource (staff) that they THINK they have absolute power over pushes back against their views.
@DOSboi Aidan 100% true. How far gone from reality are the executives who put out these releases though. Surely there must be some shred of non-corporate humanity left in them that made them think that what they're saying would receive that warranted reaction from staff and the public. This is a really interesting event horizon for Blizzard as there is no going back. We've seen this internal culture in the spotlight before (not the abhorrent harassment accusations, but the reactions to them) but may have missed it as a bigger problem; Diablo Immortal. They were genuinely shocked at the reaction and hearing boos resulted in the quoted: "Do you guys not have phones", with all of them jumping in saying the same thing or agreeing without seeing the bigger picture. That was a really strong representation of the disconnect that they have with being called out when they think they can do no wrong and it is certainly a cultural thing. The "Do you guys not have phones?" line really felt like a "Do you know who we are?" rebuttal. The company hasn't faced internal backlash on this scale though. It hasn't called itself out this much. Blitzchung & the layoffs did cause some but not on this level. It hasn't faced "This isn't good enough" from the majority of internal and external voices and now has only the options to ignore it or look at itself and recognise the failings. And only those at the top will be able to do that. Andddd I've written a novel, apologies.
@@thebenc1537 Surpisingly, Kotick was the CEO of Activision in the '90s till 2008 when Activision merged with Vivendi Games giving birth to Activision Blizzard. Since then the guy has been the CEO of Acti-Blizz
Reminds me of some people’s interpretations for why Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” has a theme of trusting someone, no matter how many times they backstabbed you with almost no evidence of remorse.
as someone who really likes overwatch, the fact one of the employees in the cosby suite picture has a beloved character in the game named after them makes me even more sick on top of the disgust already garnered from this case
I’m just so disillusioned in how corporations work to think this will go anywhere. This is not the first time Blizzard or other companies like Amazon are shown to ignore any idea of treating workers like humans and get away with nothing. I will believe America can fix itself the day the next WoW espansion, Call of Duty or Diablo do not just cancel this absolute hell on earth.
@@TheCyberfoxGod69 not up for jail time and he also live accross the entire continent(2 week car drive away(12 hours driving a day).......i be hoping some dude not caring for jail does it(if he(buttby) dont get jailled himself after this whole bs....likely cant count on authorities when they get bribed by lot of $$$)
If they used middle East as an excuse to escape justice then let them go to the middle East to face justice, middle Eastern style. Oh wait if they go there then 'justice' will be to promote them and give them a medal of honour! This behaviour effects most corporations in America today and if it isn't solved quickly there won't be any America left.
@@isturboot1659 wait……… so you’re saying most of the issues come from the employees, so we should ignore the other issues that go beyond simply the employees because… why?
@@isturboot1659 Seems people will always find a way to turn someone doing good into something bad. You are part of the problem trying to dictate what should and shouldn't be talked about
@@LittleHayabusa No? Emily was the one who got mocked at a job fair with the recruiters from Blizzard asking her how she liked to be "penetrated" (in reference to pentest). After she got hired on at another job at a high level position, her boss turned down a job from Blizzard and blasted them for it in his reply. The boss posted a redacted form that removed references to Activision-Blizzard on Twitter back when it happened.
Considering how long this shit's been going down for, anyone else suspect that the founders of ArenaNet left to form their company because they were sick of being abused? I mean, the fact they want a union for the games industry, and Blizzard apparently doesn't, speaks volumes.
@@isturboot1659 union in my company is very good. even before pandemic but when covid happened they would stay up late at night to write demands to protect employees from getting fired because the management were super quick to cut people without even waiting for the government announcement. we would get emails at 2 am regarding the matter.
@@isturboot1659 You're right that unions aren't always the best answer, but we need an answer. If unions aren't good enough, we need to come up with a solution, because the status quo is unacceptably low grade.
@@isturboot1659 Ooh i fucking hear you, but that is apparently too much to ask for out of human beings. We're not hiveminded enough nor compassionate enough to just dropkick a company into not existing like that on an employee and consumer level.
@@isturboot1659 they negotiated better redundancy packages. managed to save a lot of jobs by making the company let people that were at risk to choose part time. they prolonged the decision long enough for the furlough scheme to be introduced by the government which saved more positions. they also give legal council. so yeah quite useful in my opinion.
With the way its going its in steep decline It will break and collapse completely if people rebel enough, history collapsed the biggest companies before in such a way
When the people with the actual power--the shareholders--clean house. Remember, those protesters could quit but shouldn't have to. So, we don't want Activision to go under but want the shareholders to replace management who begin instilling a new culture Bobby, Brack, and others need to go.
EA: So tell me again how evil my Sims business strategy is. Come on, do it! Fans: Damn it... EA: What was that? Andromeda wasn't that bad? We're putting out a remastered Dead Space! Fans: ...
EA recently has a good track with SW Battlefront 2, SW Squadrons, Jedi Fallen Order, Command & Conquer Remastered, Apex Legends, Battlefield 2042, NFS Heat etc.
@@rosesweetcharlotte Oh no, EA still really fucking bad with their bastard monetization system, it's fallacious to think the events that have happened at activision blizzard suddenly nullifies issues with EA now that news of a different company is doing other kinds of bad shit and no doubt there's probably some shady sexist stuff in EA that we haven't learned about yet either. You can acknowledge just how fucked both of them are at the same time - the only real difference between the two is whether their victims were employees or customers
i guarantee you the same shit is going on within EA too, and take two, and ubisoft. now that activision is on fire, it's just a matter of time before their employees do the same thing.
More than you think but it never gets publicized. My previous company had an India branch and before some dude quit he email blasted the ENTIRE company about how his manager was getting preferential treatment, sleeping her way up the ladder, abusing employees and all sorts of shit and that the executives turned a blind eye and let her run rampant all over everyone causing people to quit their jobs, take pay cuts, get retaliation for speaking out, etc Needless to say, shortly after that the entire India division got canned. Every. Single. One. Some of their facebooks (we found them after some searching) had some pretty scathing things to say too.
A world where schoolchildren in a sinking ferry blindly obey instructions to go down with a sinking ship! I don't want to live in a world where no one can stand up to authority.
It happens quite a bit, happened with the company I used to work for when the piece of shit of a CEO decided to ban several prominent individuals from the properties without any given reason. Employees spoke out, some even walked off the job (including a large number of the security staff) which resulted in the CEO backing off and coming out with the excuse that it was an "error when the list was made" Error my ass.
Seriously , what the heck is going on here?! Bobby Kotick needs to be fired right now!!! And the company need to stop ignoring what is blatantly obvious at this point, it’s disgusting
rr you stupid Bobbie kotick like it or not is actually fairly paid and I can argue he is underpaid for what he has done he made Activision what it is today he made them a household name that his work he owns 10% of Activision blizzard and he gets less money than he should I don't like it but theses Is how it is it's like saying bill gates should get less money from Microsoft back when he was in charge. Or even Steve Jobs or Jeff from Amazon
And to further clarify, penetration testing is literally that. They poke your firewalls and email security to find weak links whether it be open ports, not strong enough security to stop spam/phishing emails, etc. So "Penetration Expert", as innuendo like as that sounds, is actually a very important job in the cyber-sec world. Man, this is the story that just keeps on giving.
I'd be willing to bet this is even the tip of the iceberg still. Can't imagine how many horror stories will come out of there as people get less scared to say things and more confident.
Applies to physical security too. Many professionals in the industry prefer to use the abbreviation "pen testing" because many people have the mental age of a child and can't stop themselves giggling at innuendo.
Everyone admits that there is some innuendo with the term 'penetration expert' but still find it weird if a joke/comment is made about it. (yes i agree its immature) Just use 'pen testing' like sixstringedthing says or some other term. Or just grow up and tell the one making the joke/comment to piss off.
alright but lets be real, if you wear a shirt that says "Penetration Expert" you forfeit the right to get mad about someone making a joke like "lol u like being penetrated?" because that (rather inappropriate) joke is 100% going to happen at least once, and likely more than once. this seems like a super hard stretch on the part of the chick. she was most likely very aware that she was being cheeky. its like wearing a shirt that says "defecation expert" and then get mad when someone says "real shit?" or something along those lines.
Thank you for talking about this. As a Wow player, who's taking a loooong break from blizzard, your vids help trying to understand whats going on while watching the bonfire burn from a distance. Keep up the good work.
I know this is a bit of an echo chamber but I'll repeat this too. Remember, HR is not there to protect the employees but to protect the company. Find fellow victims and go public if you can, these dirty bastards deserve to be called out. Edit: Got some messages following this comment, of course going public isn't easy, neither is finding fellow victims. If you ever feel harassment, wronged, assaulted or anything similar, find help outside of the place it happened to you. Damage control is a thing and don't settle for the bare minimum. You all deserve better.
I want the shareholders and the board to come by with scissors and say, "about that golden parachute" **snip** No Severance Package, just..."we're gonna have you resign now."
Hiring a union busting law firm after all this? Just goes to show what their worst fears are. Unionization. Not all this terrible shit being done or coming out, oh no. Unionization is the worst case scenario for Activision Blizzard...
Unionization is horrible for everyone. As unions can easily corrupt just as the corporations themselves. You are just adding layer to hinder employees. The best move for them is to just flat out leave. Leave Blizzard/Activision and find better employment elsewhere. What better way to shut them down then to have no one working there at all.
I'll be honest. These "PR statements" aren't as much statements as they are threats. I honestly am scared that if this union revolt doesn't go through it lights out for these people's careers and possibly even lives.
Honestly I think Activisin Blizzard deserve to burn down and have their IP’s sold to other companies or at the very least have everything entirely changed.
Crash and Spyro to PlayStation, CoD to Xbox… Warcraft to Valve(?). I doubt we’d see their IPs sold off (they’ve got way too much money) but I like the possibilities…
With EA I've come to expect the terrible quality of games in the last decade or so. I've come to completely avoid them. I remember a good point in their past though. I bought SSX3 a month or so ago to play it again, and when the "EA sports... BIG!" thing came up, a little of me felt sad, cause I remember good games coming from them every so often. As far as Cosby Suites and open lactation rooms are concerned, I have yet to do any research on EA doing that kind of stuff. It seems like Blizz would be winning the slimeball race to me anyway.
2$ from 1 million of ppl would do it but prob should gauge how many would be willing to participate first(the hard part would be to make ton ppl aware of said peition....then its whoever willing to pay for his jailling).....so start with a poll to see who is willing to donate and if it reach enough ppl then you can host a donation for his jailling...if not enough ppl mark themselve as willing to get him jailled....then cancel it out
I said it before and I'll say it again; I am so glad I never got into game design! I may live in the Netherlands but let me assure people that the CRIMINAL corporations of America have their crimes known here too! Every single one of my co workers I try to persuade to never buy any sort of FIFA game or to Always ALWAYS make sure to never put in any sort of bank account number when their kids play games.
Investigate them much more carefully and look into the possible tax evasion fraud involved in them creating and selling hacks for their own games on the black market, they are making a fortune this way all tax free and under the radar. GL
I hope when the new COD is revealed the trailer gets dislike-bombed more than Infinite Warfare, even if that shit will probably still be the top seller of the year.
@@TheCyberfoxGod69 We could protest outside of stores or post comments about it in the comments. We could even go to Facebook and other social platforms and tell parents not to buy these games and then give them alternatives
Unions are often just as corrupt as the company, they just feed off desperation of workers and then once the dues are contractually locked down, they ignore you and everything they promised disappears in the ether... I showed up to every Union recruitment drive at my last job to warn them how useless the union was to prevent them from tricking people just leaving highschool from getting screwed over and it felt amazing. Got to the point they would try to reschedule cause I would show up and start asking why once I signed up all the benefits they offered disappeared and they ignored my attempts to talk to them. Nothing was more satisfying than having people tell me they weren't signing up since the union reps would rather leave than answer the questions of their members for the benefits they promised.
I really want Toys 4 Bob and Vicarious Visions to somehow take the Crash Bandicoot, Spyro The Dragon and Tony Hawk licenses and leave Activision Blizzard. They are easily the only games I care about and they're actually good people unlike the big corporation itself.
A lot of you are pretending this only started once Activision took over and Blizzard is a victim. THIS IS ALSO A BLIZZARD PROBLEM. It's been their culture long before Activision took over.
I really wish for the mothers of those scumbags to hear about this. Please keep reporting, because they will try to ride this out until people have forgotten about it in two weeks or so.
One of my first jobs out of law school was as EOE investigator and I have never heard anything this brazen… This is where I should tell you that the company I worked for was a freaking *meat packing plant* - and you would be hard-pressed to find an industry full of more machismo than that.
What concerns me most and which isn’t being discussed in any detail, is if this is what’s been going on at Blizzard what’s been going on at all other major developers around the US and world. Something tells me that the bad behaviour, working conditions & enumeration packages at Blizzard isn’t solely restricted to Blizzard and has been going on elsewhere just the same. A massive part of me hopes it’s not the case but knowing how shitty human beings can be, no matter where in the world they are, I suspect other companies need a spotlight shone on them also, just look at Ubisoft for example.
I hope they realize that a union isn't something you can "set and forget". Unions need to be babysat just as much as a corporation. They can be just as corrupt.
What happened to OCEA and shit like that? Unions can be corrupt if u have the wrong people behind the wheel u need to have the workers on top instead of a corpo big wig.
And the solution to this mess is to not unionize and just hope that the executives are feeling merciful? That's not a plan of action, that's a prayer of desperation.
@@mr-mr-101 saying “be careful of a union becoming corrupt” isn’t the same as “Don’t unionize”. If someone said watch out for leaks in your roof do you think they’re telling you you shouldn’t have a roof?
I just realized… maybe the whole “denied promotions due to possible pregnancy” business may be because the employees could get pregnant from these “cube crawls?”
As expected. State won't start an investigation unless they are certain that there is a reason for it, and also the reason to encourage others to speak up. Good job!
I truly wish I could do more than simply boycott activizzard. I want to see justice done and these monsters held accountable. Disgusting incel corporation.
Their developers don't have the backbone to leave, and their fanboys don't have the backbone to stop paying. Why on earth would you expect Activision to change?
Hope the company, specifically the ones at the top that permit and encourage this crap, get every bit of what they deserve... But I'm not holding my breath.
Did you know some blizzard content creator still blatantly try to defend the suite name Cosby? "Your overwatch" latest video says so at the end of his video
I'm astonished by every new detail that surfaces. How is it possible for things to be that bad. The "Not everyone at blizzard is bad" is slowly fading away. You have to be bad if you are at the company, knew about this and did nothing and not even report on it for years until now. I don't care if you need your job so badly to live. You can find another just like how you found whatever you have already.
It seems these two companies are run by immature high school teens. The stories have come out and keep coming out makes me sick and mad. I hope everyone responsible for this whole sad situation gets arrested or at least fired from the companies and hopefully they never get hired elsewhere again.
I agree, but I don't think it's about school/age necessarily. Everyone sees grades/schooling as a WIDE measure of intellect and character, which is just incorrect. You're right though. But I'm sure you pick the right high schoolers, they could run Blizzard EVEN BETTER and/or more 'mature' than who runs it now. Even less than that, the right middle school kids could. Act/Bliz is a despicable, rotten, backwards company.
The problem is you would assume that the majority of the senior management group had no idea about any of this stuff going on. The protest and a lot of other actions that the employees are doing will influence what they do now. Blizzard will probably break up into smaller studios under the blizzard umbrella. Most of the staff currently at blizzard will probably be mass purged.
They absolutely will if they can, they'll just wait a while for the public scrutiny to die down, and they'll fire a few people at a time using various excuses to maintain plausible deniability.
@@justinstoll4955 Sue for what? There's very little legal recourse here. Refusing to work is grounds for termination, and employment is at-will. The US has little to no protections for workers, which is why unions exist.
"If you're at a cybersecurity conference, you know exactly what that shirt means" ...yes, but you're also smart enough to understand the joke and know it's sexual. This does NOT give them the right to say something like that - maybe like "Hah, nice shirt."
sure lets just pretend that walking around with a shirt that has "PENETRATION EXPERT" printed in big bold letters is not a direct invitation, if not straight up bait, for a joke like that. inappropriate or not. if i see someone wearing a shirt that says "DEFECATION PROFESSOR" i'd say he/she forfeits the right to be insulted when the inevitable "lmao that's a shitty shirt" comment inevitably comes along.
In all fairness: At the time the "Cosby suite" was created, the man was not yet widely considered a sex offender. There were some accusations in the early 2000's but they didn't really lead anywhere and weren't widely known until the whole story resurfaced in 2014. The picture is from 2013. Like, I know it looks horrible in context, but if someone told you a company had a Cosby Suite in 2013 you wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that it had anything to do with sexual abuse.
Just when you think the harassment stories can't get worse, they do.
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You see Bobby this is why people put devil horns on pictures of you.
Ooohhh! This should have 900+ likes foooo really tho
Clearly hes upset its not worse
@@davidm.schreckii1426 I'd rather have 900+ devil horns on all of old Kotick's photos. Just covering his whole body on all of them so we don't have to look at him anymore.
@Sypha Flowen Yeah that makes sense. He does make a habit of passing off personal responsibility.
@@vVAstrAVv Oh I have a feeling it's going to get so much worse.
I swear, being a woman in that company is legitimately like living in the dark ages. What are rights?
Blizzard employees: wait womens rights actually exist? I thought that was a joke
Just without the bubonic plague.
@@decipher111 Out of season April fools joke
Put your grain of sand by uninstalling Activision games and not play them let alone pay
Blizzard is horrible
Don't let this go away. There's so many companies that function perfectly fine without all this garbage going on.
Like Insomniac for example
Like which ones? It's really rare to find a big publisher that isn't - because none of them are your friend, you're not their client, you're a customer to be charged and ripped off as much money as they can get. Because their only job is to make profit for the shareholders, everyone else is extra.
@@PAcifisti If I was a shareholder, I would be especially pissed about all of this. It's no wonder both companies have been sucking lately with stuff like this.
@@PAcifisti Every minute employees go on strike for awful workplace environment is a minute of moneymaking lost.
@Wah Especially Monoloth soft. Not only do they have a good balance of Male to Female workers, but they make sure employees don't overwork themselves and don't allow them to take work home.
"The fact that [locks on lactation doors] wasn't implemented earlier..." Yeah, bad. But the fact that locks on the doors NEEDED to be implemented is the entire problem. Those blokes should have been fired.
Yeah... absolutely.
Off topic:
This reminds me of a person talking about how schools in the US should be redesigned to make school shootings less lethal as possible... He completely misses the point... school shootings happen in dysfunctional societies... his society needs to be looked at and fixed... then there isn't a need to design schools with active shooters in mind. :/
Honestly wouldn't surprise me if they installed locks on the outside of the doors
@@isturboot1659 Maybe. But the issues ongoing here, and the lawsuit, indicate that people like this have absolutely NOT been fired, hence the ongoing problems.
There's some sad parallels between the idea that lactation rooms need locks on the doors, and the idea that women shouldn't go out in revealing clothing or drink alcohol at a party if they wish to avoid being assaulted. "Solutions" to problems that should not require a solution because they shouldn't be problems in the first place.
yeah, and if you've lived long enough you would've heard of men being creepy around breastfeeding women even in the workplace. I swear it's probably been less then half a decade that I've heard of a woman having to scream for a man to leave. It just piles on for blizzard.
Hard to believe the executives are still playing the whole, "ignore it until people forget about it." The unfortunate thing is people probably will. They will still buy COD. Nothing will change. There is money to be made.
Never understood the appeal of cods past world at war and mw2. Especially the newer ones are so bad
If people find the products worth purchasing then yeah of course. It’s not like people refuse to buy Apple products or anything from Walmart because of a lack of morality within those corporations.
@@jjr8108 Walmart can be reasoned with because it can save you money, apple no, never understood why people simp for apple
Please dont buy COD at launch anyone who is reading this that would. Hit Activision-Blizzard where it hurts, their wallet
I for one am proud to say I have had, and still hold an unbroken boycott on Activision/Blizzard since about 2006.
And JJR,
Yes, it's exactly like that. If a corporation has a lack of morality, I in fact WILL refuse to buy products from them. That's the whole idea behind a boycott.
Blitzchung was enough for me to boycott them, this shit just makes absolutely certain that never changes.
Yeah, same here. Haven't bought a Blizzard game since that mess, but now I'm also hoping for that entire company and all their games to just completely crash and burn.
Activision firing the original creators of Call of Duty in 2011 was for me a reason to boycott them.
@@Koala1203 slowly but surely things are going south. Death by a thousand cuts.
I boycotted them after Diablo 3.
Same. I sold all my Blizzard stuff since then.
Truth is, there’s probably going to be more horrific crimes uncovered.
These aren't crimes is the thing. These are all civil violations. The only legal ramifications will be fines and possible sanctions.
That's why it's a lawsuit, and not an indictment.
@@Droogie128 the lawsuit could potentially lead to criminal charges being brought against certain individuals but let's be honest, it probably won't.
The "justice" system exists to keep us regular Joes and Jills in line, not to punish to rich for breaking the law.
@@sixstringedthing Nothing really listed is an actual crime, that's the issue. Sexual harassment is a civil infraction.
Now, if someone committed sexual battery or something, that would be criminal. However, that isn't mentioned.
Civil cases are much easier to win than criminal. Criminal requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Civil only requires a preponderance of evidence.
@@revolverswitch they have to have a room. Federal law requires it.
@@Droogie128 Groping without consent is sexual assault, and is mentioned in several occasions in the lawsuit. I do agree that It's possible these won't actually lead to criminal charges though.
Good on them for not lacking in conviction. Don't sell yourselves short, devs. EVERY cog, every belt, rotor, etc. in the machine has an important role.
Forget the cogs the whole machines out
according to Ray Kassar the lead designer, creator and coder is no more important than the factory workers assembly the Atari cartridges. Nuttin' has changed in 45 years dawg.
They know that they have legalised slavery and they are laughing asking everyone wacha gonna do? Not only in gaming but everywhere.
Except the poor girl who works all day in a china factory for 5 winnie the pooh dollars a day to make your shoes. Nobody gets offeded about that.
If you want capitalism and always back it up, well here it is. There is no such thing as equal pay in capitalism.
It's not the importance of your role that determines your worth in the corporate world, it's how replacable you are.
If bobby isn't forced to step down after this, there is literally no hope for this company
Bobby was sued for sexual assault (or harassment?) but didn't go to jail (what a shocker) because he settled out of court for a ton of money.
Sadly I think this will be settled behind doors and the company will go on with changes but the ones that must be punished will get just a slap on the wrist, I don't think bobby will be affected much.
@@gapinzonr Sadly I think you are right. They will simply (and no doubt grudgingly) pay whatever is required to make it all just "go away".
I really hope that we are both proven wrong in the coming months, but I honestly can't see it happening.
So other greedy corporate suit can take his place? CEO cares about money and shareholders, customers have customers support.
Watch the guy get a few more millions for this.
Imagine making EA look like saints.
Absolutely embarrassing.
The fact that EA has never any of sexual allegation history like Activision Blizzard is quite something.
Well... EA exploits their customers and Activision/Blizzard exploits their employees. Of course, nobody has to buy EA games if they don't want to.
Just wait ea"s will come out as well
EA, while no sexual harassment has been shown, (at least non that we know of) has had cases of employees being abused with crunch time. Anthem had really bad development conditions for Bioware staff.
@@CeHee123 Anthem was mainly due to BioWare lacked of good software engineers with Frostbite engine to worked on.
Activision: I'll wake up tomorrow with all this being a bad dream.
Protest: I don't think so.
In a month it will be. I would put money on it. Stocks only down 6% despite such a story and already on the rise.
@@samb123078 I can't believe people are still wanting to have thier stock it's quite obvious Activision blizzard is going downhill every year, would of sold long before now tbh
I feel for WoW and other players. Giving up a MMO is hard. That said canceled subs and no cash shop spending is what management and investors will notice.
@@TheCyberfoxGod69 Activision Blizzard cannot be sold as it's way too expensive. It's worth nearly $71 Billion alone.
@@ishakrahuya what do u mean it can't be sold that's not how stocks work you sell them when u want to last I remembered they exchange them or whatever. Idk how they can't be sold, people sell stocks like that on Wallstreet all the time. Your suppose to be able to sell them whenever you want because your basically investing by gambling and your suppose to be able to get your take whenever you want.
At this point throw the whole company away.
And give the IP’s to other companies.
Completely agree
but also blacklist all that stinky execs, or they're just gonna start popping up in new studios
@@misterzygarde6431 I'd love to see Activision go up in smoke. Fuck the IPs, I just want to see this whole charade of a company end (though if we are talking about IPs and this is gonna sound odd, give Crash and Spyro to Capcom or Wayforward. Someone you can do retro revival well.∆
@@thegreygoblin5165 I actually had the idea of giving Crash and Spyro to Capcom too, though also hand them the Skylanders, and Tony Hawk games along with Toys for Bob and Beenox.
Imagine going to a lactation room as a guy and just standing there watching women as they breastfeed to the point they need to yell you out of it. Just. What. The. Hell? Of course, this is not the worst of the allegations but it just blows my mind. If they just wanted to see boobs, there's plenty on the internet (and given how often it seems they were allowed free time to play video games, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't delve into adult entertainment while in the workplace as well) but this shows the absolute lack of respect, the will to demean those women and how non-frowned upon it was for them to engage in that kind of nauseating behavior in their work culture. I have no words.
The same can apply to all the times they harass women, physically or no. Like, they could _easily_ just go to a corner and raise their blood pressure to pixels on a screen. It alleviates their needs just the same, if not better, and - follow me on this one - _doesn’t_ cause people to file lawsuits against them.
Like, how down *abysmal* can you be? They would rather risk their company, livelihood, and time not on a blacklist or behind bars for something they can basically find on safe search off Google images? Come on. Do better.
“B-but muh power dynamics!”
Yeah, here’s a life hack: you can also get power by attaining an IQ within at least the double digits. And that has the added bonus of not making everyone else unquestionably hate you!
Its kind of amazing to me that there is a room specifically for this at the same company that 1) does not promote women bc they can reproduce, and 2) does not do ANYTHING, AT ALL to discourage men from sexually harassing women at the company
@@mediumvillain they have to have these rooms. It's federal law.
This is creepy on so many levels .
@@Droogie128 Never heard of "Lactation room" before this video.
So, all companies in the USA are required, by Law, to have these rooms?
When a CEO fires 800 employees when making record profit, when the CEO take bonuses despite missing objective while senior devs have hard time making ends meet. You know it s rotten
Goes to a hacking conference wearing a "I'm a Hacker" t-shirt.
Is asked if they like getting their limbs and head hacked off.
Yeah, it doesn't work. People don't do that.
What is wrong with these freaks who work for Blizzard?
But really a penetration shirt I mean come on at that point you're just making it easy to make that joke way too easy
So easy in fact it might be a female version of catfishing trying to get a guy to say something so that she could sue them or get them in trouble
@@robgogames Yeah, but they were also seemingly in disbelief that a woman could be a hacker at all. That comment wasn't exactly in a vacuum.
@@davexmit It is still up to the individual to decide whether it is appropriate to go with the innuendo (as we learned from Blizzard, the answer is clearly 'no') or do the smart thing and keep your mouth shut. If I were to see someone wearing such a shirt, I'd likely chuckle, make a mental joke if I felt like it, but otherwise keep my lips sealed. There's nothing positive to be gained from going there.
Can’t wait for internet historian to make a video about all of this in a year
The way it's looking that'll be just the 1st patch
@@johnnyguillotine1673 god i hope if he does make a video on this its a cost of concordia length video
@@nukadraco9942 that’ll be a treat
Too depressing for that.
Or Crowbcat
Bobby: I promise we are going to do our best to treat our employees better.
Also Bobby: don’t you even THINK about unionizing or you’re fired.
To quote one of Blizzard's most iconic characters: This entire company must be purged!
That is very literally what is going to have to happen if anything is going to change for the better.
Huh?
@@sarlon51 You do know what the consequences of that purge action would be? I'd say that the end result will be a lot of employees, the normal ones, not the higher-up stuff, being let go in droves. The top management will just take their golden parachutes and land safely, while everyone else will have a free fall moment.
@@pjotrsavitski Its not the ground level employee's that are the problem though, they are the victims. You can change out the ground level staff a thousand times over and nothing would ever change. Its the upper management that needs to be purged, including and starting with the CEO.
@@sarlon51 Sure, I'm not objecting that ground level people have no control over the situation. What I meant was that purging the higher level people will have consequences and could result in company either shrinking or disappearing altogether. I'm not famiar with the financial situation, though it seems that if investors pull out, then there will be a lot of mayhem. Higher ups are in a better position to go through these turbulent times.
EA must be so happy to hear this news....they probably think they aren't the worst place to work at anymore.
What are they like? I only know about their monetisation practices
@@SunyataManji you ever hear the term “sweatshop”?
It’s basically that
@@DMDarren oh extreme crunch I guess, understood...
@@SunyataManji yep
Having worked there for roughly three years, I am not even *remotely* surprised that this is happening. Bullying there is common. Their attendance policies are absurd. I could go on about all the nonsensical shit they do internally (or at least did while I was there) but I wouldn't want to be sued.
Well, you could tell us about the attendance policies. What are those like?
I hope you are well and I'm so sorry to hear about this.
I worked for Nintendo, EA, Blizzard and The Whitehouse and I can tell you that their policies are absurd and incredibly oppressive. I could go on in further detail, but I don't want them to sue me even though I'm completely anonymous, so I will leave this as vague as possible.
I worked for Blizzard for short 3 months. Had to quit because they wouldn’t let me shit on the floor.
@@rosesweetcharlotte Hi! They were pretty atrocious, but they may very well have changed by now. (There were certainly enough people who hated them.)
If you were more than five minutes late, for any reason, it went on your employee record semi-permanently; they eventually changed the policy to the point where it would fall off after a few months rather than yearly, but it was still absurd. ALL absences of ANY kind required the use of FMLA leave; you COULD request vacation time, but would often be denied outright, either because (a) the phone and ticket queues were backed up for hours on end because senior leadership kept laying dozens to hundreds of people off at a time as cost-cutting measures, or (b) because a manager just didn't like you and didn't have to be overseen by anyone.
The funny thing is that some of this could easily have been a misinterpretation of policy, either on my part or the part of any given manager - but it was impossible to actually find out for sure, as every single manager in the company did things differently and had their own interpretation of written rules. And - like I said - they could apply them however they wanted, because nobody ever called them out on their behavior.
This just gets better and better, or in Blizzard's case, worse and worse.
As it should be
Things are getting so hot the blizzard is turning into a tear storm.
ikr?
Through fire and brimstone, until War3 one day will be Reforged by great blacksmiths who enjoy what they do and care for their customers.
Activision Blizzard will move the studios outta California ASAP 🤣
You gotta throw both the companies away.
they are one company last i checked they merged awhile back
@@dr.man9759 probably meant both studios
Need to deal with everyone including tencent.
Burn it, burn it all. Burn the fat roaches out of their disgusting rotted armchairs
you gaming kids are freaks, not understanding!
“The Activision Blizzard conversation continues, ladies and gentlemen.”
*”Ah sh*t, here we go again.”*
Tbh, it's good it continues. The internet and especially gaming community has proven time and time again that they have short term memory loss and once something is out of the news they are fine with the status quo continuing. Nobody gave a fuck about the fact that Riot is in an ongoing lawsuit about exactly this kinda bullshit until it was dug up again in the wake of all this. This is how companies operate, they hope it quickly goes out of the news and can get away with some promises. No news outlet will be dogged enough to do check-ins on regular basis see if longterm changes actually happen, they'll rather hype up the next big game of said company.
@@masha8770 Greg Street left as lead systems designer at Blizzard to go be the VP at Riot. And guess what!? He's in the Facebook group chat from 2013 that talks about rounding up the "hot chixxx" for the Cosby Suite. So the situation at Riot makes sense. They hired a sexual predator to be their VP.
hello there
I feel bad for kids that say "I want to make video games when I grow up" and then this is what they find...
This is absolutely disgusting and shameful. Clean house and fire all those involved starting from the top the CEO. I hope Activision's stock drops like a stone anchored to someone's feet like the mob would make a problem disappear.
Best thing that should happen is that the higher ups go to jail shutdown both companies and sell the ips to someone else, I don't give a shit if it's EA just do something.
It's crazy to see the disconnect between employees and executives and how the executives get confused when their viewed resource (staff) that they THINK they have absolute power over pushes back against their views.
@DOSboi Aidan it's like being a literal carpenter in the modern construction industry today, far worse than the wood screaming but nice analogy.
@DOSboi Aidan 100% true. How far gone from reality are the executives who put out these releases though. Surely there must be some shred of non-corporate humanity left in them that made them think that what they're saying would receive that warranted reaction from staff and the public. This is a really interesting event horizon for Blizzard as there is no going back.
We've seen this internal culture in the spotlight before (not the abhorrent harassment accusations, but the reactions to them) but may have missed it as a bigger problem; Diablo Immortal. They were genuinely shocked at the reaction and hearing boos resulted in the quoted: "Do you guys not have phones", with all of them jumping in saying the same thing or agreeing without seeing the bigger picture. That was a really strong representation of the disconnect that they have with being called out when they think they can do no wrong and it is certainly a cultural thing. The "Do you guys not have phones?" line really felt like a "Do you know who we are?" rebuttal.
The company hasn't faced internal backlash on this scale though. It hasn't called itself out this much. Blitzchung & the layoffs did cause some but not on this level. It hasn't faced "This isn't good enough" from the majority of internal and external voices and now has only the options to ignore it or look at itself and recognise the failings. And only those at the top will be able to do that.
Andddd I've written a novel, apologies.
Also applies for most Latin America governments. They don't even know what a dozen eggs or a monthly apartment rent costs.
Let me be overdramatic for a second but I really mean it:
It's a global catastrophe!!!
Well, do not be surprise if this behaving will be expose in Another Industries. Lets be honest 95% of managers are incompetent souless psychopats.
Bobby Kotick needs to go and Activision Blizzard needs an overhaul in terms of structure.
*needs to go to prison.
Youre welcome
@@Mikedot blizzard IS activision. Activision Blizzard specifically. the old blizzard is long dead.
Amazing all this happens under the control of Kotick, a stunning and brave pervert.
Should be broken up, along with EA.
@@thebenc1537 Surpisingly, Kotick was the CEO of Activision in the '90s till 2008 when Activision merged with Vivendi Games giving birth to Activision Blizzard. Since then the guy has been the CEO of Acti-Blizz
And now I understand why WoW has a narrative about forgiving oppressors.
Please don’t tell me this is real
Omg I never even thought about that
Reminds me of some people’s interpretations for why Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” has a theme of trusting someone, no matter how many times they backstabbed you with almost no evidence of remorse.
It's called grooming children and they are experts in these criminal abuses.
as someone who really likes overwatch, the fact one of the employees in the cosby suite picture has a beloved character in the game named after them makes me even more sick on top of the disgust already garnered from this case
Play tf2, there is no such problem or upadtes or attention or....
I’m just so disillusioned in how corporations work to think this will go anywhere. This is not the first time Blizzard or other companies like Amazon are shown to ignore any idea of treating workers like humans and get away with nothing.
I will believe America can fix itself the day the next WoW espansion, Call of Duty or Diablo do not just cancel this absolute hell on earth.
Mind you Booby Kotick only said something when the stocks were going down. What a coincidence
i want them face jail time
Someone should assinate him the world would be better off
@@TheCyberfoxGod69 not up for jail time and he also live accross the entire continent(2 week car drive away(12 hours driving a day).......i be hoping some dude not caring for jail does it(if he(buttby) dont get jailled himself after this whole bs....likely cant count on authorities when they get bribed by lot of $$$)
If they used middle East as an excuse to escape justice then let them go to the middle East to face justice, middle Eastern style. Oh wait if they go there then 'justice' will be to promote them and give them a medal of honour! This behaviour effects most corporations in America today and if it isn't solved quickly there won't be any America left.
@@notinterested8452 Middle Eastern “justice” is definitely what these executives deserve
Yong, keep pursuing this Activision issue. I support you, and I will always watch your videos on this topic.
I subscribed to him because he is speaking out against all odds. And I will mute bots like instabot bot here.
@@isturboot1659 wait……… so you’re saying most of the issues come from the employees, so we should ignore the other issues that go beyond simply the employees because… why?
@@isturboot1659 Seems people will always find a way to turn someone doing good into something bad. You are part of the problem trying to dictate what should and shouldn't be talked about
im proud of long time WoW youtubers saying enough is enough and are moving on in mass to other MMOs
Final Fantasy 14: All are welcome. All are welcome.
@@isturboot1659 The game has sucked for a very, very long time. I quit in 2011 and have not touched it since.
I hope they are organising fundraisers for victim support and hiring lawyers to sue in any way possible.
@@isturboot1659 I thought people started loving it again with the launch of classic.
I thought developers needed to unionize after the telltale incident. Ever since I’ve been vocal about it.
Ion Hazzikostas, Game Director for WoW, was formerly employed by the law firm that Kotick hired. Wonder if that factored into the hiring decision?
The irony of that story about Emily is insane. That's like a huge in your face on Blizzard.
Is that Emily one who committed suicide?
@@LittleHayabusa No? Emily was the one who got mocked at a job fair with the recruiters from Blizzard asking her how she liked to be "penetrated" (in reference to pentest). After she got hired on at another job at a high level position, her boss turned down a job from Blizzard and blasted them for it in his reply. The boss posted a redacted form that removed references to Activision-Blizzard on Twitter back when it happened.
@@roetheboat1 That incident alone should have been a wake up call to Blizzard that they had a problem.
Considering how long this shit's been going down for, anyone else suspect that the founders of ArenaNet left to form their company because they were sick of being abused? I mean, the fact they want a union for the games industry, and Blizzard apparently doesn't, speaks volumes.
Eeyuup
@@isturboot1659 union in my company is very good. even before pandemic but when covid happened they would stay up late at night to write demands to protect employees from getting fired because the management were super quick to cut people without even waiting for the government announcement. we would get emails at 2 am regarding the matter.
@@isturboot1659 You're right that unions aren't always the best answer, but we need an answer. If unions aren't good enough, we need to come up with a solution, because the status quo is unacceptably low grade.
@@isturboot1659 Ooh i fucking hear you, but that is apparently too much to ask for out of human beings. We're not hiveminded enough nor compassionate enough to just dropkick a company into not existing like that on an employee and consumer level.
@@isturboot1659 they negotiated better redundancy packages. managed to save a lot of jobs by making the company let people that were at risk to choose part time. they prolonged the decision long enough for the furlough scheme to be introduced by the government which saved more positions. they also give legal council. so yeah quite useful in my opinion.
When or where does this stop? When blizzard doesn’t exist anymore?
Yes
God I hope so.
Here's hoping it takes Activision out with it.
When it reaches a breaking point.
With the way its going its in steep decline
It will break and collapse completely if people rebel enough, history collapsed the biggest companies before in such a way
When the people with the actual power--the shareholders--clean house. Remember, those protesters could quit but shouldn't have to. So, we don't want Activision to go under but want the shareholders to replace management who begin instilling a new culture Bobby, Brack, and others need to go.
Remember when we all thought EA was the worst thing in gaming? Man I wish we could go back to that.
EA: So tell me again how evil my Sims business strategy is. Come on, do it!
Fans: Damn it...
EA: What was that? Andromeda wasn't that bad? We're putting out a remastered Dead Space!
Fans: ...
Remember when big corporate hadn't got their claws into every single gaming company and turned it into legalised slavery?
EA recently has a good track with SW Battlefront 2, SW Squadrons, Jedi Fallen Order, Command & Conquer Remastered, Apex Legends, Battlefield 2042, NFS Heat etc.
@@rosesweetcharlotte Oh no, EA still really fucking bad with their bastard monetization system, it's fallacious to think the events that have happened at activision blizzard suddenly nullifies issues with EA now that news of a different company is doing other kinds of bad shit and no doubt there's probably some shady sexist stuff in EA that we haven't learned about yet either. You can acknowledge just how fucked both of them are at the same time - the only real difference between the two is whether their victims were employees or customers
i guarantee you the same shit is going on within EA too, and take two, and ubisoft. now that activision is on fire, it's just a matter of time before their employees do the same thing.
Anyone else notice that one of the guys in the Cosby Suite was a VIP Riot employee?
Greg Street.
I’m shocked employees actually spoke out against their ceo?! Does that even happen anymore?
More than you think but it never gets publicized. My previous company had an India branch and before some dude quit he email blasted the ENTIRE company about how his manager was getting preferential treatment, sleeping her way up the ladder, abusing employees and all sorts of shit and that the executives turned a blind eye and let her run rampant all over everyone causing people to quit their jobs, take pay cuts, get retaliation for speaking out, etc
Needless to say, shortly after that the entire India division got canned. Every. Single. One. Some of their facebooks (we found them after some searching) had some pretty scathing things to say too.
I'm sure Amazon employees hate their company but they've enslaved themselves. I don't know if I feel bad for them at this point.
only if you want to be fired and have no unemployment benefit access.
A world where schoolchildren in a sinking ferry blindly obey instructions to go down with a sinking ship! I don't want to live in a world where no one can stand up to authority.
It happens quite a bit, happened with the company I used to work for when the piece of shit of a CEO decided to ban several prominent individuals from the properties without any given reason. Employees spoke out, some even walked off the job (including a large number of the security staff) which resulted in the CEO backing off and coming out with the excuse that it was an "error when the list was made"
Error my ass.
Seriously , what the heck is going on here?! Bobby Kotick needs to be fired right now!!! And the company need to stop ignoring what is blatantly obvious at this point, it’s disgusting
@@isturboot1659 well all that money will be gone soon
@@isturboot1659 Problems start at the top, and he has already been found liable for sexual harassment once.
rr you stupid Bobbie kotick like it or not is actually fairly paid and I can argue he is underpaid for what he has done he made Activision what it is today he made them a household name that his work he owns 10% of Activision blizzard and he gets less money than he should I don't like it but theses Is how it is it's like saying bill gates should get less money from Microsoft back when he was in charge.
Or even Steve Jobs or Jeff from Amazon
@@isturboot1659 he hasn't there talking about the Jeffrey Epstein thing apparently they say he was on the flight list
@@isturboot1659 these people don't understand business man they just hate him granted he is an ass but a deservinh ass
And to further clarify, penetration testing is literally that. They poke your firewalls and email security to find weak links whether it be open ports, not strong enough security to stop spam/phishing emails, etc. So "Penetration Expert", as innuendo like as that sounds, is actually a very important job in the cyber-sec world.
Man, this is the story that just keeps on giving.
I'd be willing to bet this is even the tip of the iceberg still. Can't imagine how many horror stories will come out of there as people get less scared to say things and more confident.
Applies to physical security too.
Many professionals in the industry prefer to use the abbreviation "pen testing" because many people have the mental age of a child and can't stop themselves giggling at innuendo.
Everyone admits that there is some innuendo with the term 'penetration expert' but still find it weird if a joke/comment is made about it. (yes i agree its immature) Just use 'pen testing' like sixstringedthing says or some other term. Or just grow up and tell the one making the joke/comment to piss off.
alright but lets be real, if you wear a shirt that says "Penetration Expert" you forfeit the right to get mad about someone making a joke like "lol u like being penetrated?" because that (rather inappropriate) joke is 100% going to happen at least once, and likely more than once.
this seems like a super hard stretch on the part of the chick. she was most likely very aware that she was being cheeky.
its like wearing a shirt that says "defecation expert" and then get mad when someone says "real shit?" or something along those lines.
@@ZugzugZugzugson I couldn agree more, iam glad some people here are making sense :)
I worked for Activision at the location where the IT guy hid a camera in the bathroom. The company's response to it is one reason I quit.
Thank you for talking about this. As a Wow player, who's taking a loooong break from blizzard, your vids help trying to understand whats going on while watching the bonfire burn from a distance.
Keep up the good work.
Bobby Kotick: "Sorry, I can't see any of that because of all these cash blocking my view."
I know this is a bit of an echo chamber but I'll repeat this too. Remember, HR is not there to protect the employees but to protect the company. Find fellow victims and go public if you can, these dirty bastards deserve to be called out.
Edit: Got some messages following this comment, of course going public isn't easy, neither is finding fellow victims. If you ever feel harassment, wronged, assaulted or anything similar, find help outside of the place it happened to you. Damage control is a thing and don't settle for the bare minimum. You all deserve better.
Worked at blizzard in Austin, experienced a lot of this, hope it burns to the ground
Tell us your horror stories
I hope you are okay.
Got any proof besides your say so? Also what stopped you from leaving this company if it was so horrible?
@@origami83 "worked" at blizzard
The worst part, this is only the tip of the iceburg in the entire industry.
Kotick readying his golden parachute and like-minded replacement..
I want the shareholders and the board to come by with scissors and say, "about that golden parachute" **snip** No Severance Package, just..."we're gonna have you resign now."
@@3Rayfire that'd blackball the investors in their tribal community though, they won't do that.
Hiring a union busting law firm after all this? Just goes to show what their worst fears are. Unionization.
Not all this terrible shit being done or coming out, oh no. Unionization is the worst case scenario for Activision Blizzard...
Unionization is horrible for everyone. As unions can easily corrupt just as the corporations themselves. You are just adding layer to hinder employees.
The best move for them is to just flat out leave. Leave Blizzard/Activision and find better employment elsewhere. What better way to shut them down then to have no one working there at all.
@@goufr3540 Where did you get that fact from?
@@zacharyarons6950 he's a paid union buster.
@@goufr3540 This is not the norm.
@@zacharyarons6950 Seen the Union corruption over the years. The Employees are best just leaving and finding better work elsewhere.
Anyone defending Blizzard at this point needs to be laughed at.
Just look at the last couple videos yong has put out about Activision/ Blizzard and just look at all the dislikes...... yeah f*** those people
No no, they need to be flogged.
@@isturboot1659 *laughs*
@@isturboot1659 very funny friend. Do provide direct quotes.
Laughed at and more.
The fall of actvision is near (rubs hands maniacally)
Mmmm yes I shall throw a party when they burn to the ground like the shit they are.
Wait.... who's going to take Call of Duty when Activision's gone?
@@WarbossR0kt00fSant0s eeh Call Of Duty slowly losing its touch, theyre just basically milking the franchise now
@@WarbossR0kt00fSant0s call of duty is a shell of its self. Deep inside, I don't think anyone will share a tear, nor should they, if it dies
@@WarbossR0kt00fSant0s Cod is the Madden of Activision. Havent touched it since maybe BO2 and no regrets at all.
Keep the pressure on Yong. This is so important the coverage.
Video game devs absolutely need to unionize. If they do, it would probably drive studios out of California, but no one should be living there anyways.
Extremely appreciate your continued covering of Blizzard and Activision, they’re scum
I'll be honest. These "PR statements" aren't as much statements as they are threats. I honestly am scared that if this union revolt doesn't go through it lights out for these people's careers and possibly even lives.
And they know it, but that's how bad this company is that they are willing to risk everything.
Honestly I think Activisin Blizzard deserve to burn down and have their IP’s sold to other companies or at the very least have everything entirely changed.
Dream Haven may buy it ☺️
Crash and Spyro to PlayStation, CoD to Xbox… Warcraft to Valve(?). I doubt we’d see their IPs sold off (they’ve got way too much money) but I like the possibilities…
That will never happen.
Honestly speaking, none of this is likely to happen.
Everyone in upper management needs to be burnt at the stake. Especially Bobby and Franz.
The truth is... No will end up in jail behind this. As they should...
Just write a check. Morals and respect is cheap
Unions are needed for any big entertainment industry. Even films forget this with employee 16+hr days.
This has been amongst the biggest crash and burn I’ve ever seen by a Gaming Company. Not even E.A. has crashed like this!
Give it time
~yet
no wonder why all of their new stuff seems to miss the mark.
Well its matter of time. ActiBlizz fall will trigger others falls. It a chain reactions...
With EA I've come to expect the terrible quality of games in the last decade or so. I've come to completely avoid them.
I remember a good point in their past though. I bought SSX3 a month or so ago to play it again, and when the "EA sports... BIG!" thing came up, a little of me felt sad, cause I remember good games coming from them every so often.
As far as Cosby Suites and open lactation rooms are concerned, I have yet to do any research on EA doing that kind of stuff. It seems like Blizz would be winning the slimeball race to me anyway.
Okay, time to petition for Kotick to GO TO PRISON FOR LIFE, BOIS.
the epstein thing was enough for me, this is salt for the wounds now
You got my signature lmk time and place
2$ from 1 million of ppl would do it but prob should gauge how many would be willing to participate first(the hard part would be to make ton ppl aware of said peition....then its whoever willing to pay for his jailling).....so start with a poll to see who is willing to donate and if it reach enough ppl then you can host a donation for his jailling...if not enough ppl mark themselve as willing to get him jailled....then cancel it out
Nah. We're not going to suck up to feminist cows. I'd rather buy a game made by frat bros instead of a bunch of whiny hosebags.
@@notinterested8452 What. The closet where all the normal people hang out? Stop trying to suck up to a bunch of 4s, dude.
I said it before and I'll say it again; I am so glad I never got into game design! I may live in the Netherlands but let me assure people that the CRIMINAL corporations of America have their crimes known here too! Every single one of my co workers I try to persuade to never buy any sort of FIFA game or to Always ALWAYS make sure to never put in any sort of bank account number when their kids play games.
At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if there are racketeering and drug rings secretly happening among Blizzard executives.
Jesus this is one of the most soulless companies ever and I know soulless....I work for the IRS
I just want different news already
Investigate them much more carefully and look into the possible tax evasion fraud involved in them creating and selling hacks for their own games on the black market, they are making a fortune this way all tax free and under the radar. GL
@@dream6562 No, not till the company goes down
I hope when the new COD is revealed the trailer gets dislike-bombed more than Infinite Warfare, even if that shit will probably still be the top seller of the year.
You know that won't happen stupid little kids gonna keep buying it
@@TheCyberfoxGod69 We could protest outside of stores or post comments about it in the comments. We could even go to Facebook and other social platforms and tell parents not to buy these games and then give them alternatives
@@TheCyberfoxGod69 many of the Kids arent stupid though they Just dont know what is Happening
You could probably fertilize all the farms in a state like Nebraska with all the Manure coming from Activision's management
Those Blizzard employees are real heroes...they waited until government and media attention exposed the horrid stuff that they witnessed regularly.
This is the icing on the cake, I'm not sure if I'm ever going to give Blizzard my money anymore.
It's awful by itself that there exist union-busting law firms
Unions are often just as corrupt as the company, they just feed off desperation of workers and then once the dues are contractually locked down, they ignore you and everything they promised disappears in the ether... I showed up to every Union recruitment drive at my last job to warn them how useless the union was to prevent them from tricking people just leaving highschool from getting screwed over and it felt amazing. Got to the point they would try to reschedule cause I would show up and start asking why once I signed up all the benefits they offered disappeared and they ignored my attempts to talk to them. Nothing was more satisfying than having people tell me they weren't signing up since the union reps would rather leave than answer the questions of their members for the benefits they promised.
"They had to fricking patched the breastfeeding room" That line made my day and sums up Activision Blizzard.
I really want Toys 4 Bob and Vicarious Visions to somehow take the Crash Bandicoot, Spyro The Dragon and Tony Hawk licenses and leave Activision Blizzard. They are easily the only games I care about and they're actually good people unlike the big corporation itself.
Ageed thank you
A lot of you are pretending this only started once Activision took over and Blizzard is a victim. THIS IS ALSO A BLIZZARD PROBLEM. It's been their culture long before Activision took over.
I really wish for the mothers of those scumbags to hear about this. Please keep reporting, because they will try to ride this out until people have forgotten about it in two weeks or so.
One of my first jobs out of law school was as EOE investigator and I have never heard anything this brazen… This is where I should tell you that the company I worked for was a freaking *meat packing plant* - and you would be hard-pressed to find an industry full of more machismo than that.
This is a good reason to boycott Activision Blizzard and their products
There was already like 100 reasons.
Not gonna stop the legion of children that whine and beg their parents every year for the newest Call of Duty.........
@@WastelandWanderer1216 A game that those kids aren't even old enough to play. Those that are old enough don't have to ask their parents.
I mean there are so many reasons to boycott at this point, you can just pick and choose your favorite.
Naaa, cod beats real life. Remembre kids, escape from the problems its more easy
There was a activision IT guy charged in 2018 for putting hidden camers in the stalls
Lmao wtf
What concerns me most and which isn’t being discussed in any detail, is if this is what’s been going on at Blizzard what’s been going on at all other major developers around the US and world. Something tells me that the bad behaviour, working conditions & enumeration packages at Blizzard isn’t solely restricted to Blizzard and has been going on elsewhere just the same. A massive part of me hopes it’s not the case but knowing how shitty human beings can be, no matter where in the world they are, I suspect other companies need a spotlight shone on them also, just look at Ubisoft for example.
OMFG this is like the 8th video I watched this week on blizzard and I'm still learning new horrible things they did
I hope they realize that a union isn't something you can "set and forget".
Unions need to be babysat just as much as a corporation. They can be just as corrupt.
What happened to OCEA and shit like that? Unions can be corrupt if u have the wrong people behind the wheel u need to have the workers on top instead of a corpo big wig.
And the solution to this mess is to not unionize and just hope that the executives are feeling merciful? That's not a plan of action, that's a prayer of desperation.
@@mr-mr-101 That's why we're not suggesting that.
@@mr-mr-101 saying “be careful of a union becoming corrupt” isn’t the same as “Don’t unionize”. If someone said watch out for leaks in your roof do you think they’re telling you you shouldn’t have a roof?
I just realized… maybe the whole “denied promotions due to possible pregnancy” business may be because the employees could get pregnant from these “cube crawls?”
I really think it's just normal sexism, but the fact that it could be this is just disgusting.
@@rosesweetcharlotte most definitely. As much as I hold extreme resentment towards Activision/Blizzard, I just want the victims to be okay.
Doesn’t help that from one story, one DID get pregnant
@@germainiv and you know that the victims are most likely to suffer more while these criminals reward themselves and laugh.
Ew.
As expected. State won't start an investigation unless they are certain that there is a reason for it, and also the reason to encourage others to speak up.
Good job!
That is how the law works. Sorry but listen and believe is emotional
I truly wish I could do more than simply boycott activizzard. I want to see justice done and these monsters held accountable. Disgusting incel corporation.
The employees should compile a list of all the abusers and insist they're all fired at the minimum before any of them will go back to work.
New episode of blizzard controversies dropping when? I’m sure that’s not all of it
This is the song that never ends… Yes, it goes on and on, my friend…
Is that from the old kids show with puppets?
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was....
@@adammohammed2185 yeah Lamb Chop’s Play-Along from the early 90s (showing my age here but 🤷🏻♀️)
@@IHeliosI And they just kept on singing it forever just because...
I’m a Starcraft player and seeing/hearing these hurts me a lot
They stopped caring about us Starcraft fans a long time ago.
Horrible that everyone is helpless and suffering this way.
C&C player : First time?
13:36 I remember randomly finding that article and just going “what the f*ck”
Their developers don't have the backbone to leave, and their fanboys don't have the backbone to stop paying. Why on earth would you expect Activision to change?
Bobby is in the black book right? I wouldn't be surprised if this guy has nasty skeletons in his closet
I heard there are undisclosed blackmail pictures of Bobby boy shoving bars of gold up his ass.
Never break the Five Tenets. To do so is to invoke the Wraith of Sithis.
Hope the company, specifically the ones at the top that permit and encourage this crap, get every bit of what they deserve...
But I'm not holding my breath.
Did you know some blizzard content creator still blatantly try to defend the suite name Cosby?
"Your overwatch" latest video says so at the end of his video
I'm astonished by every new detail that surfaces.
How is it possible for things to be that bad. The "Not everyone at blizzard is bad" is slowly fading away.
You have to be bad if you are at the company, knew about this and did nothing and not even report on it for years until now.
I don't care if you need your job so badly to live. You can find another just like how you found whatever you have already.
It seems these two companies are run by immature high school teens. The stories have come out and keep coming out makes me sick and mad. I hope everyone responsible for this whole sad situation gets arrested or at least fired from the companies and hopefully they never get hired elsewhere again.
I agree, but I don't think it's about school/age necessarily. Everyone sees grades/schooling as a WIDE measure of intellect and character, which is just incorrect. You're right though. But I'm sure you pick the right high schoolers, they could run Blizzard EVEN BETTER and/or more 'mature' than who runs it now. Even less than that, the right middle school kids could.
Act/Bliz is a despicable, rotten, backwards company.
I'm surprised their response wasn't just fire those who protest.
Activision would be sued in oblivion.
The problem is you would assume that the majority of the senior management group had no idea about any of this stuff going on. The protest and a lot of other actions that the employees are doing will influence what they do now. Blizzard will probably break up into smaller studios under the blizzard umbrella. Most of the staff currently at blizzard will probably be mass purged.
They absolutely will if they can, they'll just wait a while for the public scrutiny to die down, and they'll fire a few people at a time using various excuses to maintain plausible deniability.
@@justinstoll4955 Sue for what? There's very little legal recourse here. Refusing to work is grounds for termination, and employment is at-will. The US has little to no protections for workers, which is why unions exist.
@@Droogie128 Doesn't this fall under the right to protest?
"If you're at a cybersecurity conference, you know exactly what that shirt means" ...yes, but you're also smart enough to understand the joke and know it's sexual. This does NOT give them the right to say something like that - maybe like "Hah, nice shirt."
Exactly. The lack of professionalism is astonishing.
sure lets just pretend that walking around with a shirt that has "PENETRATION EXPERT" printed in big bold letters is not a direct invitation, if not straight up bait, for a joke like that. inappropriate or not.
if i see someone wearing a shirt that says "DEFECATION PROFESSOR" i'd say he/she forfeits the right to be insulted when the inevitable "lmao that's a shitty shirt" comment inevitably comes along.
im surprised these are the people that blizzard feel should publicly present them, well at least they are honest in that regard
Time for companies with similar stories to build on the momentum
In all fairness: At the time the "Cosby suite" was created, the man was not yet widely considered a sex offender. There were some accusations in the early 2000's but they didn't really lead anywhere and weren't widely known until the whole story resurfaced in 2014.
The picture is from 2013.
Like, I know it looks horrible in context, but if someone told you a company had a Cosby Suite in 2013 you wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that it had anything to do with sexual abuse.