16 votes

New leadership at Blizzard

13 comments

  1. AugustusFerdinand
    Link
    Blizzard: Take a snapshot and see what this page looks like in a year: https://www.activisionblizzard.com/leadership

    Blizzard:

    We scoured the ranks to see who had the credentials to lead (couldn't find one, so we promoted two) and was new enough that they didn't come up in any emails when we CTRL+F their names in the HR complaints.

    Take a snapshot and see what this page looks like in a year: https://www.activisionblizzard.com/leadership

    5 votes
  2. [11]
    emnii
    (edited )
    Link
    Let's add some more context to this announcement, because Brack isn't leaving just because and this announcement from Blizzard doesn't cover the real reason....

    Let's add some more context to this announcement, because Brack isn't leaving just because and this announcement from Blizzard doesn't cover the real reason.

    https://kotaku.com/blizzard-president-j-allen-brack-is-stepping-down-1847412696

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-03/blizzard-president-departs-as-game-maker-faces-labor-lawsuit (paywalled)

    Schreier provides a simple timeline about how we got to this: https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1422573178820386817

    https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/08/blizzard-president-j-allen-brack-steps-down-amid-lawsuit-fallout/

    5 votes
    1. [3]
      TheJorro
      Link Parent
      The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing gamers that EA was the most evil company. Really though, Bobby Kotick has been a real terror on the industry for over 10 years now and...

      The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing gamers that EA was the most evil company.

      Really though, Bobby Kotick has been a real terror on the industry for over 10 years now and somehow it has gone largely unnoticed outside of the one or two years Kotaku et al. covered his antics until he quieted down and then memes went back to laying everything at EA's feet even though Activision has consistently done worse by consumers regularly.

      7 votes
      1. [2]
        Bullmaestro
        Link Parent
        EA got lots of stick for things which are now standard practice. Loot boxes, pay-to-win, gutting out successful game studios, killing franchises with bad mobile games, etc. They were also in the...

        EA got lots of stick for things which are now standard practice. Loot boxes, pay-to-win, gutting out successful game studios, killing franchises with bad mobile games, etc.

        They were also in the unique situation of being in contention for America's Worst Company (which they won twice over the likes of Comcast & Verizon...) back when the Consumerist was still a thing.

        2 votes
        1. TheJorro
          Link Parent
          Don't get me wrong, EA is still on shitlists for good reasons. But it's also very overblown compared to what a lot of what other companies do, which get forgotten about pretty quickly. Activision...

          Don't get me wrong, EA is still on shitlists for good reasons. But it's also very overblown compared to what a lot of what other companies do, which get forgotten about pretty quickly.

          Activision and Take Two are no less guilty than EA in all those things and, on average, I'd even say that they both do those things more than EA does. I'm not 100% about the mobile game bit but the others have some notable examples.

          Honestly, I don't think EA is nearly as bad as people say. They're a faceless hypercapitalist conglomerate that would sell their own grandmothers for cash, but they're still better than Activision Blizzard. And Bobby Kotick really is that appalling of a person.

          3 votes
    2. Bullmaestro
      Link Parent
      I feel like Brack is just a sacrificial lamb they purged to act like they were doing something to address the lawsuit. I'll believe Activision when they listen to the demands of the ABK coalition....

      I feel like Brack is just a sacrificial lamb they purged to act like they were doing something to address the lawsuit.

      I'll believe Activision when they listen to the demands of the ABK coalition. Or if they don't bust down the first unionization movement to grace the games industry that will inevitably come out of this.

      3 votes
    3. [6]
      AugustusFerdinand
      Link Parent
      Fair point. This post will seem as nothing significant to those that haven't been following the recent news on Activision/Blizzard: https://tildes.net/?order=new&tag=blizzard

      Fair point.

      This post will seem as nothing significant to those that haven't been following the recent news on Activision/Blizzard: https://tildes.net/?order=new&tag=blizzard

      1. [5]
        emnii
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        I wasn't particularly blaming OP. This place and others obsess over "original sources only", even when those original sources are a company being sued for their toxic workplace and their...

        I wasn't particularly blaming you OP. This place and others obsess over "original sources only", even when those original sources are a company being sued for their toxic workplace and their announcement doesn't cover even half of the story. According to Blizzard, Brack just decided to roll out for no particular reason. There's a reason why he left and I think it's important not to let Blizzard control this story.

        3 votes
        1. [4]
          Adys
          Link Parent
          I don't think it's humanly possible to think that unless it's the first time you hear about it and you explicitly don't care about the story… There's three other posts about this exact story on...

          I don't think it's humanly possible to think that unless it's the first time you hear about it and you explicitly don't care about the story…

          There's three other posts about this exact story on ~games landing right now.

          2 votes
          1. [3]
            emnii
            Link Parent
            And there's just two posts about Blizzard on the front page of tildes.net. This one, and one about how Blizzard's reputation has fallen. It's misguided to think everyone is as informed as you are....

            And there's just two posts about Blizzard on the front page of tildes.net. This one, and one about how Blizzard's reputation has fallen. It's misguided to think everyone is as informed as you are. Take a week off and you're out of the loop on all of this. It's not hard to give a little context.

            1 vote
            1. [2]
              Adys
              Link Parent
              You're kind of making my point here :) I'm not dismissing the addition of extra articles/context/material (I was coming back to post both articles actually and saw you already did), but your...

              And there's just two posts about Blizzard on the front page of tildes.net.

              You're kind of making my point here :)

              I'm not dismissing the addition of extra articles/context/material (I was coming back to post both articles actually and saw you already did), but your follow-up comment was just kinda weird?

              1. emnii
                Link Parent
                I was being fairly generous. You have scroll more than a screen deep to find that other Blizzard article. edit: again, not blaming you for linking to the announcement from Blizzard. If you'd...

                I was being fairly generous. You have scroll more than a screen deep to find that other Blizzard article.

                edit: again, not blaming you for linking to the announcement from Blizzard. If you'd posted one of the links I provided as context, your post would be edited by admins to link to the Blizzard announcement instead. But I think it's important to add that context to this announcement and no one else did so I did.

                1 vote