Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime apologizes to former employees after lawsuit BlizzardMike Morhaime, the co-founder and former CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, apologized for the \u201cterrible\u201d experiences women had while working for the company, which came to light in their highly publicized lawsuit. It\u2019s been a while since Morhaime was in charge of things at Blizzard Entertainment. However, he was shocked to learn about the horrific allegations that the company, now called Activision Blizzard, fosters a \u201cfrat boy\u201d culture that has subjected female employees to sexual harassment without consequence. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) report claimed the company was \u201cakin to working in a frat house\u201d and included everything from unequal pay to female employees to sexual harassment and more. Morhaime described the allegations as \u201cdisturbing and difficult to read\u201d and that \u201ceverything [he] stood for [had] been washed away,\u201d although that pales in comparison to the fact that \u201creal people have been harmed.\u201d \u201cI was at Blizzard for 28 years,\u201d he said. \u201cDuring that time, I tried very hard to create an environment that was safe and welcoming for people of all genders and backgrounds. I knew that it was not perfect, but clearly, we were far from that goal.\u201d \u201cThe fact that so many women were mistreated and were not supported means we let them down. In addition, we did not succeed in making it feel safe for people to tell their truth. It is no consolation that other companies have faced similar challenges. I wanted us to be different, better.\u201d Morhaime explained that harassment and discrimination are \u201cprevalent\u201d in the video game industry and believes it\u2019s important to \u201ckeep all employees feeling safe, supported, and treated equitably, regardless of gender and background.\u201d \u201cIt is the responsibility of leadership to stamp out toxicity and harassment in any form, across all levels of the company,\u201d he added. \u201cTo the Blizzard women who experienced any of these things, I am extremely sorry that I failed you.\u201d Morhaime concluded his statement by reiterating that he let these women down, and as a leader in the industry, he wants to hear their stories if they are willing to share them. He also promised to use his influence to \u201chelp drive positive change\u201d and combat \u201cmisogyny, discrimination, and harassment\u201d wherever he can. The current Activision and Blizzard presidents, Rob Kostich and J. Allen Brack, sent emails to employees describing the allegations as \u201cdisturbing\u201d and vowed to do whatever it takes to cultivate an \u201cinclusive environment\u201d moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime apologizes to former employees after lawsuit BlizzardMike Morhaime, the co-founder and former CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, apologized for the \u201cterrible\u201d experiences women had while working for the company, which came to light in their highly publicized lawsuit. It\u2019s been a while since Morhaime was in charge of things at Blizzard Entertainment. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}