Yesterday’s news thatMicrosoftis acquiring Activision Blizzard for just shy of $70 billion brought a lot of mixed feelings to the gaming community. On one hand, Microsoft’s acquisitions have largely been well-received in the long run, as its studios have been publishing plenty of excellent titles. On the other hand,Activision Blizzard is essentially on fire right nowwith its ongoing abuse and discrimination lawsuit, as its CEO Bobby Kotick remains confident in his ability to fix the company from within, despite his clear involvement in and knowledge of the ongoing abuse.
Calls for Kotick’s resignation are not a new thing; that being said, now that new leadership will be taking over Activision Blizzard, the gaming community is looking towardsMicrosoftto finally fire Bobby Kotick. While it’s still unclear where he’ll fall once the ink dries from the acquisition, his removal from the company seems inevitable. That shouldn’t be the end of the changes that will need to happen at Activision Blizzard, though, far from it. Now that Microsoft will be in charge, it’s going to need to take on the responsibility of fixing the internal issues with the company, because Activision Blizzard as it exists currently is clearly incapable of it, and the changes can’t just stop with the removal of Kotick.
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Activision Blizzard Moving Forward
With a company as large as Activision Blizzard that has problems ingrained in its foundation, there aren’t any quick fixes to eliminate all of its internal issues. Oftentimes, with systemic issues, the entire system needs to be scrapped and built from the ground up. Simply appointing new managerial staff will likely yield the same results if real change isn’t made. Givenhow much money it cost for Microsoft to acquire the company, it’s unlikely that it’s going to completely dismantle the current company in favor of rebuilding it, but there are other steps Microsoft can take to hopefully implement change.
Activision Blizzard recently reported that it’s fired 37 employeesassociated with the misconduct, but with a company of nearly 10,000 employees, there are clearly more people involved with its “frat boy” culture than those let go and Bobby Kotick himself. Microsoft will need to be unafraid of evaluating everyone in leadership positions to see if they’re truly fit to lead different departments. After firing employees associated with abuse and misconduct, Microsoft will need to replace them with people who are going to be better fits for the roles that are firmly against the way that the company is currently operating.
A good place to look for those replacements would be in theABK Workers Alliance, a group of Activision Blizzard employees who are pushing its staff to unionize. It’s currently unclear what Microsoft thinks of the ABK Workers Alliance (if it’s able to throw $70 billion around, people can likely take a good guess) but hopefully, Microsoft sees the types of positive changes that would come hand-in-hand with allowing Activision Blizzard employees to unionize. Microsoft could put those leaders in positions where their positive influence could be best seen taking over for those abusing workers.
At the end of the day, it’s simple to want the workers at Activision Blizzard to have healthy work conditions, but with the state that the company is currently in, it’ll take a more complicated fix than firing the current CEO. Company culture runs deep and aside from a major corporate overhaul, the options to implement real change seem limited aside from trusting in a union to support employees. Either way, it’s soon going to beMicrosoft’s responsibilityto clean the company up and now, all eyes are on it to make the right calls and provide a safe, healthy working environment for all of its employees.
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