Activision Blizzard has been getting a pretty big side-eye from gamers lately. Not least of all due to the information about from the numerous reports of workplace misconduct. The SEC has uncovered information proving the developer has been extremely bad at doing everything concerning employee rights.
One such discovery was between 2018 and 2021. The triple-A developer didn’t have any of the appropriate procedures in place to analyze complaints about employee misconduct. Which means management had no idea of the breadth of the issues, and failed to “assess whether any material issues existed that would have required public disclosure.”
Worse than that, there seemed to be a deliberate attempt to keep former employees gagged in separation agreements. The SEC discovered Activision Blizzard was actively violating whistleblower protections between 2016 and 2021. Employees were asked to disclose whether the SEC had contacted them for information regarding the company. Which is, ya know, illegal.
“Activision Blizzard failed to implement necessary controls to collect and review employee complaints about workplace misconduct,” Jason Burt, SEC’s Denver office director chides the game company. “which left it without the means to determine whether larger issues existed that needed to be disclosed to investors.”
“We are pleased to have amicably resolved this matter. As the order recognizes, we have enhanced our disclosure processes with regard to workplace reporting and updated our separation contract language,” Activision Blizzard said in a statement. “We did so as part of our continuing commitment to operational excellence and transparency. Activision Blizzard is confident in its workplace disclosures.”
The company is definitely paying for it. But there still needs to be a greater push for large-scale companies to do better. Whether this will impact Microsoft’s $69 billion offer to purchase the gaming giant remains to be seen. Last we heard, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) had blocked the deal.
