A current Activision Blizzard employee, known only as Christine, held a press conference yesterday outside Blizzard's headquarters in Irvine, California. Claiming there's an "alcohol-soaked culture of sexual harassment” within the company, she's being represented by Lisa Bloom, a lawyer known for taking on sexual assault cases.
Having worked with Blizzard for four years, Christine spoke up about her experiences within the company. Alleging that a supervisor propositioned her for sex, she advised that management told her not to report this to Human Resources, and was later demoted from her position because of this complaint.
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Activision Blizzard Employee Speaks up About Harassment and ‘Alcohol-Soaked Culture’
Furthermore, Christine claims she'd been denied full profit-sharing, advising of continued harassment and retaliation, which led to her avoiding staff social events. Following this, Bloom issued several public demands for staff, including a new “streamlined” process for victims and $100 million victim compensation fund. Activision has since issued a statement to Polygon and IGN.
This press conference comes amidst ongoing discrimination and harassment lawsuits against Activision Blizzard. That's seen Sony CEO Jim Ryan, Xbox's Phil Spencer and Nintendo's Doug Bowser privately condemning Bobby Kotick's response to those claims. Geoff Keighley's announced the publisher won't appear at The Game Awards tonight, beyond existing nominations.
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