Gamers are avoiding Activision Blizzard games today in solidarity with workers

By Otto Kratky July 28, 2021

Players across platforms aren’t logging in to Call of Duty: Warzone, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, or the rest of Activision Blizzard’s games in solidarity with the developers walking out of the company today.

The Activision Blizzard walkout was organized by developers at the company in response to the serious allegations made against the company in a recent lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The lawsuit, filed following a two-year investigation by the department, alleges that Activision Blizzard cultivated a “frat house” culture in which sexual harassment and discrimination were commonplace. The lawsuit goes on to say that women were routinely denied promotions, which went to less-experienced men, and were paid less for the same work.

Recommended Videos

Across Twitter, players are using the hashtag ActiBlizzWalkout to show their support for Activision Blizzard employees. Many players are encouraging others not to cross the “picket line” formed by developers at the company by avoiding any games with Activision’s or Blizzard’s name. Besides the games mentioned before, players will be avoiding some major franchises, including Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Spyro, and Guitar Hero.

I stand in solidarity with the #ActiBlizzWalkout today and will not be playing or streaming any of their games. I am inspired by the bravery of those who came forward and have told their stories at very real risk to themselves and their careers, and I hope they find justice. pic.twitter.com/8Ml1fc1noP

— Brian Kibler (@bmkibler) July 28, 2021

Today’s walkout isn’t the first response developers at the massive gaming company have had to the lawsuit. Earlier this week, a senior system designer for World of Warcraft stated that “almost no work is being done on World of Warcraft right now while this obscenity plays out.”

Activision Blizzard has already issued multiple public and internal statements regarding the lawsuit, but they have been received as “tone deaf” by employees and even the company’s CEO, Bobby Kotick. Kotick yesterday issued his own statement, in which he called for a “swift action to be the compassionate, caring company you came to work for and to ensure a safe environment.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

Gaming

The biggest gaming news of 2023: Insomniac leak, GTA 6 reveal, and more

2023 was a roller coaster for the video games industry. On the software side, it was a historic year for new releases. We got everything from big success stories like Baldur's Gate 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to memorable indies in Venba and Chants of Sennaar. But from the business side, 2023 was a lot more tumultuous. While some notable studio acquisitions and game announcements happened, thousands of developers were laid off, entire studios were shut down or hacked, and the provider of one of the most popular game engines landed in hot water after trying to roll out a controversial change.

The most notable gaming news stories of 2023 run the gamut from genuinely exciting to thoroughly disappointed. That speaks to a video game industry bound to head into an odd 2024 that lacks the known quantity bombshells of this year and continues to reel from layoffs. In last year's iteration of this article, my editor said that the 2020s are shaping up to be "the most pivotal decade in gaming history when all is said and done." If this year is anything to go by, that will almost certainly be true. These were the gaming stories that defined 2023, for better and much worse.
The Wii U and 3DS eShops shut down

Gaming

We predicted gaming’s 2023 future last December. Here’s what we got right

At the end of every year, there's one article I always look forward to writing. I try to put the "Trends" in Digital Trends" by predicting where gaming is headed in the coming year. It's a fun thought experiment that puts my expertise to the test as I try to pull together narratives and pin down what the industry is building to. Sometimes I'm spot-on. Other times, I'm hilariously off.

As I began to think about this year's edition, I decided to look back to what I'd written almost exactly one year ago on New Year's Day 2023. Some of my predictions were right on the money, but others were more sobering. I expected some major growth moments and devastating layoffs occurred instead. Some of those were hard to see coming -- especially in the bizarre case of the Embracer Group. Still, my reflection on what I was expecting reminded me of what a tough industry games can be even when its pumping out historic titles. This year, I'm peeling back the curtain to talk about what I got right and wrong about a tumultuous 2023.
The FTC changes the game

Gaming

The video game industry flew too close to the sun in 2023. Now, its crashing back to Earth

For several years, some relevant mergers, acquisitions, or studio formations were happening in the video game industry every month. Companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Embracer Group went on shopping sprees, and studios many of us never expected to be acquired, like ZeniMax Media, Bungie, and Gearbox Entertainment, were respectively bought up. These companies seemed dead set on infinite growth, with no plans to stop. That tone changed throughout 2023.

Microsoft completed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, but only after an arduous legal process that enflamed the console wars, leaked information the industry historically kept secret, and forced Microsoft to deemphasize its cloud gaming efforts. Meanwhile, layoffs have rocked the industry, with the biggest culprit being Embracer Group, which has been shedding studios and workers ever since a deal meant to sustain its growth fell through. As 2023 wraps up, the game industry is in a much less bullish state than it was just 12 months ago, and the people paying for that are the developers who make the games.
Infinite growth
As with any industry, mergers and acquisitions have always been part of the game industry. That goes back to 1978, when Atari sold itself to Warner Communications. But over the last decade, as gaming has become much more accepted and relevant in the mainstream, the amount of deals and prices attached to them have only increased. Microsoft frequently invested in the game industry, peaking quantity-wise with the announcement of six studio acquisitions throughout 2018.