Phil Spencer says Xbox is 'evaluating all aspects' of its relationship with Activision...

[Polycount]

A hot potato: Activision Blizzard and its CEO Bobby Kotick have become the targets of a staff revolt of sorts. Following allegations that Kotick knew about sexual harassment within the company (and even took steps to participate or protect accused individuals), over 1,000 employees have signed a petition demanding his resignation. The fallout from this catastrophe has spread far beyond the walls of Activision Blizzard HQ, however. The company's business partners, including Xbox and Sony execs, have expressed concern over how things have been handled.

The first such executive to reveal his discontent was PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan. We reported on this news yesterday, but as a brief refresher, Ryan said in an internal email to PS employees that he was "disheartened and frankly stunned" to read the Wall Street Journal's recent report on Kotick and Activision Blizzard.

He also noted that the company's response to the news was lacking. Ryan's team reached out to Activision "immediately" after the article's publication to express their "deep concern" and determine how the entertainment giant would address the allegations leveled against it.

Xbox Chief Phil Spencer chimed in with his own thoughts recently by penning a similar internal email to his workers. Bloomberg managed to view a copy of this email and shared a few quote snippets.

At one point, Spencer reportedly wrote that he was "disturbed and deeply troubled by the horrific events and actions" at Activision Blizzard, which echoes Ryan's sentiments. However, Spencer has taken his anger a step further -- currently, Xbox is evaluating "all aspects" of its relationship with Activision Blizzard and will make "ongoing proactive adjustments" as needed.

Those are surprisingly powerful words for a high-level gaming executive. Whether or not Spencer really will take action remains to be seen, but now that he's openly expressed his willingness to do so, Activision is in quite a bind.

Spencer theoretically has control over Xbox game distribution and ad deals -- having either of those revenue streams disrupted would be a tremendous blow to Activision's bottom line, so there's a strong incentive here for the company to right the ship.

We'll have to wait and see what that might look like. It may involve Kotick's resignation, or it may not; only time will tell.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/92295-phil-spencer-xbox-evaluating-all-aspects-relationship-activision.html

 

[Dimitriid]

That's possibly an even more silly claim than the top Sony's guy one for sure: You really think Microsoft is going to pass on one of the biggest and most profitable third party publisher?

What's bothersome is that this is about as token as it gets: eeeeverybody in the gaming industry will tear down their clothes and publish #MeToo statements about how Activision needs to change and Bobby Kotick needs to go...For exactly 2 weeks at the most and then hope the next big news comes along, Bobby boy harasser-in-chief remains firmly in place, Activision stock recovers and everybody is back to not giving a F*$@ about sexual assault and rampant sexism in the industry.

 

[AMN3S1AC]

Words are cheap.

 

[psycros]

That's possibly an even more silly claim than the top Sony's guy one for sure: You really think Microsoft is going to pass on one of the biggest and most profitable third party publisher?

What's bothersome is that this is about as token as it gets: eeeeverybody in the gaming industry will tear down their clothes and publish #MeToo statements about how Activision needs to change and Bobby Kotick needs to go...For exactly 2 weeks at the most and then hope the next big news comes along, Bobby boy harasser-in-chief remains firmly in place, Activision stock recovers and everybody is back to not giving a F*$@ about sexual assault and rampant sexism in the industry.

Plus there's always the chance (which historically is fairly high) that the whole affair has been exagerated and nowhere near as bad as we've been told. Charges of sexual harassment and racism are the modern equivalent of calling someone a witch: everyone joins in the mob because their afraid that NOT doing so will cast suspicion upon them as well. That said, I haven't paid much attention to this case because I already had ample reason to hate Blizzavision.

 

[phenomx8]

I dismissive about this ,

Plus there's always the chance (which historically is fairly high) that the whole affair has been exagerated and nowhere near as bad as we've been told. Charges of sexual harassment and racism are the modern equivalent of calling someone a witch: everyone joins in the mob because their afraid that NOT doing so will cast suspicion upon them as well. That said, I haven't paid much attention to this case because I already had ample reason to hate Blizzavision.

Is there any chance insitution like WSJ investigation are chimed in to somehow affecting ActiBlizz stock ?? In this era where manipulation are rampant and people seems didnt mind about integrity in exchange for money, yeah every scenario are possible, especially publication like WallStreet Journal that tied with one of the prominent stock market.

 

[defaultluser]

That's possibly an even more silly claim than the top Sony's guy one for sure: You really think Microsoft is going to pass on one of the biggest and most profitable third party publisher?

it's not so hard to imagine them making demands from te board., in exchange for keeping their gold.,

I mean, the Washington Redskins sacrificed a Totally "historically accurate " Mascot, (according to their rabid fan-base) OVERNIGHT, all so the investigation into Dan Snyder would get buried.

If they start to feel the heat from all the expected walkouts, then the consoles may feel more confident asking for a single token resignation (all of whom likey have massive Golden Parachutes", making things painless!!

 

[Dimitriid]

it's not so hard to imagine them making demands from te board., in exchange for keeping their gold.,

I mean, the Washington Redskins sacrificed a Totally "historically accurate " Mascot, (according to their rabid fan-base) OVERNIGHT, all so the investigation into Dan Snyder would get buried.

If they start to feel the heat from all the expected walkouts, then the consoles may feel more confident asking for a single token resignation (all of whom likey have massive Golden Parachutes", making things painless!!

While I understand the logic, most corporations would rather deal with millions of rabid, racist fans than a single billionaire CEO that knows all the secret handshakes and probably has dirt of all of the board of directors and can sink the whole thing if he wanted to.

I could be way off but if I am, it would be just Bobby getting a super insanely good golden parachute on his way out.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Big words from MS, which will also go nowhere. Corporate virtue signaling is meaningless.

CoD vanguard is massively popular. The woke will scream and shout, platitudes and rainbows will be sent out to sooth the hurt feelings of the terminally online, then the case will turn out to be a nothingburger (as usual) and activision will put a $20 "***** tax" surcharge on their next game, which gamers will buy in drove because muh consoomption.

While I understand the logic, most corporations would rather deal with millions of rabid, racist fans than a single billionaire CEO that knows all the secret handshakes and probably has dirt of all of the board of directors and can sink the whole thing if he wanted to.

I could be way off but if I am, it would be just Bobby getting a super insanely good golden parachute on his way out.

Are racists the new witches, or is that Nazis? It's so hard to tell now. Doesn't it ever get tiring; jumping at shadows and seeing racists and bigots everywhere in every group you disagree with? It sounds exhausting.

 

[scavengerspc]

Are racists the new witches, or is that Nazis?

There were never witches. They were made up to pin the blame where it DID NOT rightfully belong. And the entire base of the Nazi stench was racism.
Take the facts as they are and go from there.
Racists deserve their own category of disgusting people. It's sickening that they are allowed to breathe free air in America.

 

[Xclusiveitalian]

Microsoft: We are cutting all ties with Blizzard because of their past situation.
Blizzard: PS5 Exclusive
Microsoft: We don't need you
Blizzard: Sells 100M copies Diablo 2 remaster + Diablo 4 + other games
Microsoft: :O

yes, Blizzard did some pretty bad things, but they aren't going anywhere, and aslong as they make good games most gamers including myself do not care about the politics of past events that have since been changed.

 

[Dimitrios]

Will this be forgotten like that Democrat Gov Cuomo?

 

[ziffel66]

"evaluating all aspects"

translation: waiting for it to blow over.

 

[Shaitan]

If a team of convicted serial killers and Catholic pedobears would create the next StarCraft (or a good shooter which had LAN in it, modding support and zero micro transactions), while keeping in their basement 72 captive rare griffins as pets and performing Satanic rituals with the last dinosaur eggs on Earth and would hire no females in their team, I would still buy the game. Collector's Edition. And not give a crap about the woke crap cancel culture. Actually no one gives a crap, and the "diversity" of their games is just as useless as those *****ic PR statements. I hate Blizzard, and I don't hate them for the allegations, even if they had sex dungeons under the HQ. I hate them because of the awful state of their games. I bought Kingdom Come Deliverance to support the anti woke movement and have gladly bought the Cyberpunk 2077 from Poland. Will buy Japanese games and I couldn't be bothered to give a cent to the metoo movement or their propaganda.

 

[Wereweeb]

Plus there's always the chance (which historically is fairly high) that the whole affair has been exagerated and nowhere near as bad as we've been told. Charges of sexual harassment and racism are the modern equivalent of calling someone a witch: everyone joins in the mob because their afraid that NOT doing so will cast suspicion upon them as well. That said, I haven't paid much attention to this case because I already had ample reason to hate Blizzavision.

Funnily enough, the only mobs I've seen are the mobs that always, unerringly claim that every single harassment claim is "probably exaggerated" or that "they could have lied about it for some reason" in a society where over 95% of rapes go unpunished.*thinking face emoji*

 

[bviktor]

Funnily enough, the only mobs I've seen are the mobs that always, unerringly claim that every single harassment claim is "probably exaggerated" or that "they could have lied about it for some reason" in a society where over 95% of rapes go unpunished.*thinking face emoji*

Then you're looking at the wrong places.

 

[Mister_K]

That's possibly an even more silly claim than the top Sony's guy one for sure: You really think Microsoft is going to pass on one of the biggest and most profitable third party publisher?

What's bothersome is that this is about as token as it gets: eeeeverybody in the gaming industry will tear down their clothes and publish #MeToo statements about how Activision needs to change and Bobby Kotick needs to go...For exactly 2 weeks at the most and then hope the next big news comes along, Bobby boy harasser-in-chief remains firmly in place, Activision stock recovers and everybody is back to not giving a F*$@ about sexual assault and rampant sexism in the industry.

So basically just like every other social movement.

 

[Dimitriid]

So basically just like every other social movement.

If it gets "picked up" by a corporation, sure. But no I wouldn't qualify every day people just voicing their issues like that no.

 

[Mister_K]

If it gets "picked up" by a corporation, sure. But no I wouldn't qualify every day people just voicing their issues like that no.

I've been on Instagram far too long to know that so many young people will just preach for a week or two and then forget it. Probably same goes for older folks on Facebook.

 

[Dimitriid]

I've been on Instagram far too long to know that so many young people will just preach for a week or two and then forget it. Probably same goes for older folks on Facebook.

Not to get too off topic here but I would consider "Instagram" to be one of those corporations, all of social media. So is not that everybody in there is an insincere grifter looking for whatever gives them attention, likes, followers, etc. I know people joining hashtags sometimes do mean well.

But if we can understand that the structure dictates the superstructure we know that all Instagram or Twitter really need to do is to give people the incentive to be grifters and then after they've built it they'll come for sure: The problem with social media is that it only enables communication if it's within the context of a rigid, self enforced social structure with a very clear ruling class of users we commonly call "Influencers" at the top, dictating what the topics of conversation are and for how long.