Author Topic: Nintendo Issues Internal Response To Serial Harassment Of Activision Blizzard Employees  (Read 1232 times)

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Offline Shaymin

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Bowser spitting internal fire on this one.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/59013/nintendo-issues-internal-response-to-serial-harassment-of-activision-blizzard-employees

An email from Doug Bowser sent to all Nintendo employees on Friday has clarified Nintendo's stance on the ongoing culture of harassment at Activision Blizzard.

Following the publishing of an expose in the Wall Street Journal (possibly paywalled) this past Tuesday, Nintendo of America sent an email to all hands at Nintendo of America on Friday that was obtained by Fanbyte. In the email, Bowser underlined the seriousness of the allegations:

“Along with all of you, I’ve been following the latest developments with Activision Blizzard and the ongoing reports of sexual harassment and toxicity at the company,” Bowser begins. “I find these accounts distressing and disturbing, They run counter to my values as well as Nintendo’s beliefs, values and policies.”

Bowser confirmed further in the email that some kind of action was taken against Activision Blizzard with others being assessed, though no specifics were provided. Additionally, the company has been working with the Electronic Software Association to try and curb the ongoing issues that were first brought to light by a lawsuit filed by California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing this past summer, and then brought back into the focus by the WSJ article.

Similar internal emails were sent at Sony and Microsoft, with Sony head Jim Ryan saying “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... We do not believe their statements of response properly address the situation." Microsoft's Phil Spencer followed up by stating the company was "evaluating all aspects of our relationship with Activision Blizzard and making ongoing proactive adjustments."

At last report a small group of Activision Blizzard shareholders, and at least 500 employees of the company, have called for Kotick to resign or be fired; the board, largely appointed by Kotick due to his ownership of Activision for more than three decades, is standing behind the embattled CEO.

Donald Theriault - News Editor, Nintendo World Report / 2016 Nintendo World Champion
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Offline BeautifulShy

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Glad someone in the Industry is saying something about it. 


James Stephanie Sterling did a video on this whole topic.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJQqnu4IX7Y
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Offline ThePerm

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Activision is kind of an interesting company because they're like video game company #4. They were really at the start of the industry. It's too bad this all went down.

The other thing that makes this a problem, or at least set up the problem was a generational gap. Old school women weren't generally too interested in nerdy video games. Women of a certain age and up just weren't interested or acculturated in STEAM sort of lines of work. New school women were all down with nerd culture. There has been a huge change in our culture in that regard. So, you ended up with a bunch of older men with a bunch of younger women and younger men. Which, in some companies could be a recipe for toxicity without proper management and guidelines.

This is probably prevalent throughout the industry. I can't imagine Activision/Blizzard being an isolated case. I wonder what type of stuff is going on at western companies like Bungie, EA, Infinity Ward, Take-Two, Naughty-Dog, Bethesda, and Ubisoft.  Not to mention what goes on at Japanese companies. If I remember correctly there was a big sexual harassment case over at Team Ninja a few years ago.

The biggest take is: Don't try to bang your co-workers. I know you spend all your time at work. Don't do it. Work places are not open environments. Getting harassed at work can make people feel miserable. Don't cause misery. Separate your personal life and your work life. Don't **** where you eat. Be nice and polite to people.
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Offline Luigi Dude

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This is probably prevalent throughout the industry. I can't imagine Activision/Blizzard being an isolated case. I wonder what type of stuff is going on at western companies like Bungie, EA, Infinity Ward, Take-Two, Naughty-Dog, Bethesda, and Ubisoft.  Not to mention what goes on at Japanese companies. If I remember correctly there was a big sexual harassment case over at Team Ninja a few years ago.

Ubisoft got busted last year so its indeed common throughout the industry.  But in Activision's case though they took it to another level where the actual culture at the company was encouraging men to do this stuff.  That's why the harassment at Activision was so much more wide spread then other companies we know about.

Of course with reports that Bobby Kotick threatened to have a former employee killed, it's no surprise this entire company is rotten to its core.  With someone like that running the show is it any surprise the people right below him would have questionable morals as well. 
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