In the wake of recent allegations against Bobby Kotick and others at Activision Blizzard, all of the major platform holders have released internal emails to staff stating that they are looking into their relationships with the company, including a very public acknowledgment from Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer.
In the emails, which were sent out because of the reports from The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, Spencer states that he is “disturbed and deeply troubled by the horrific events and actions” at Activision Blizzard and that he’s “evaluating all aspects of our relationship with Activision Blizzard and making ongoing proactive adjustments.”
And though some of his other colleagues made the same statement in their emails, the reason why Spencer sticks out in this conversation is that he would take action as the allegations against Activision Blizzard do not align with the values of Microsoft and Xbox. What does this look like exactly? We already saw PlayStation remove CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 for technical issues. Maybe Xbox will all Activision Blizzard games from the Xbox ecosystem.
Activision made a statement regarding these emails, stating:
“We respect all feedback from our valued partners and are engaging with them further. We have detailed important changes we have implemented in recent weeks, and we will continue to do so. We are committed to the work of ensuring our culture and workplace are safe, diverse, and inclusive. We know it will take time, but we will not stop until we have the best workplace for our team.”
Activision Official Statement
Whether or not this is a PR “stop the bleeding” statement remains to be seen, but it’s going to take Activision a long time to recover from these allegations. What do you think about Phil Spencer’s response? Let us know in our Discord or Facebook group!
Sources: Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal
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