At the time of this post, the petition calling for the resignation and removal of Bobby Kotick has grown to over 1,000 signatures. Earlier today, the count was around 500 or so Activision Blizzard employees demanding Kotick step down and allow the company to heal.
We have just passed over 1k signatures https://t.co/XxlYeJZBtW
— ABetterABK 💙 ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) November 18, 2021
Following a damning report from the Wall Street Journal exposing the disturbing situation at Activision Blizzard and the truth of what Bobby Kotick was aware of and what he took part in kicking off a walkout this week. In the report, it states Kotick not only was aware of sexual allegations, but he refused to fire employees accused of sexual assault, in addition to threatening to kill a former female employee.
“We, the undersigned, no longer have confidence in the leadership of Bobby Kotick as the CEO of Activision Blizzard,” says the petition. Opening the petition, we see names of employees from Activision Blizzard, Treyarch, Sledgehammer, Raven, Infinity Ward, and various satellite and support studios.
“The past few days have been rough, but it has strengthened our resolve to make #ABetterABK now more than ever,” ABK Workers Alliance’s tweet said. “Thank you to everyone who joined us for the walkouts. Your solidarity is appreciated. Every voice matters.”
Kotick has since issued a response to the allegations, joined by a statement from the board of directors iterating they have confidence in Kotick’s approach to solving the problems at hand.
Yesterday saw PlayStation CEO, Jim Ryan saying he is “disheartened” by the situation at Activision Blizzard. In an email to employees, Ryan had this to say, “We outreached to Activision immediately after the article was published to express our deep concern and to ask how they plan to address the claims made in the article,” he wrote to his staff. “We do not believe their statements of response properly address the situation.”
