During the exchange between Phil Spencer and the New York Times, the subject of Activision Blizzard naturally came up again. The giant has been at the center of an uproar over multiple allegations of sexual assault and harassment for several weeks. Spencer also spoke quickly, saying to himself, “deeply disturbed by these allegations”. He went on precisely “evaluate all aspects of the relationship between Xbox and Activision”. Strong words that suggested several firm measures. The answer given today is more nuanced and vague.
Emphasis on employee stress
His first reaction is to focus on the employees. The announcement of his allegations disgusted him deeply, he says. As an industry veteran, and even more so as a Comforter executive, he takes a broad view of the industry. Don’t be a bit naive.
I always feel concerned about the people working on a team, mine or someone else’s. I believe people should feel safe and included in any workplace they find themselves in. And I am saddened and disgusted when I hear about work environments that cause such distress and destruction to individuals and teams. And that’s something that I think we, as an industry, can continue to make the investments that we need to make. But it should be an entertainment business. It should be about fun, competition and cooperation.
Activision is a longtime partner for Xbox. The success of the publisher’s flagship franchise, call of Duty, was created on Xbox Live. Due to the seriousness of the allegations and Spencer’s comments, things seemed to be turning sour. If the words weren’t so sharp anymore, there would still be a before and after of these episodes. Without forgetting to embrace the company’s own mistakes:
The work that we’re doing specifically with a partner like Activision is something I’m obviously not going to talk about publicly. We’ve changed the way we do certain things with them and they’re aware of that. But it’s not our place either, Xbox, to attack other companies. The history of Xbox is not without flaws.
Spencer is referring to the 2016 edition of the Game Developers Conference. As a reminder, Xbox had held an evening of women dancing on catwalks, which outraged a large number of people that evening. This is also what caused the height Microsoft sponsored the Women in Gaming Luncheon that same day.
It was a painful moment in Xbox history. […]I love that my own team was one of the loudest voices on social media to say this was wrong. And then the work that the team has done to persevere and say that this moment will not define what Xbox means, but rather will be a catalyst for us to improve and grow.
And all the partners that are there, if I can learn from them or contribute to the journey we’re on Xbox by sharing what we’ve done and built, I’d much rather do that than the other companies that are there to blame.
dialogue and listening
One can’t help but think of the difference in tone between what was said in the initial revelations and what Spencer said in that exchange. Kara Swisher, the New York Times journalist, jumps to this point to better understand her interlocutor. According to Spencer, the answer comes primarily through dialogue and listening.
I think the first thing is to make people feel like they can report and talk about what’s going on. As I said, people’s safety is at stake. And I have more capacity in my own team. But I just want to say that in general it is important to have open lines of communication where people can share their lived experiences in our teams.
He also wants to remind that his field of action is not infinite compared to Activision. In fact, he’s not part of the publisher’s management team. If a problem arises at their level, it is up to the shareholders and the board of directors to make the decisions.
I would say that when it comes to people in leadership positions in other companies, it’s obviously not up to us to judge who the CEOs are. For example, CEOs are elected by shareholders and boards of directors. At Xbox, I know who I’m responsible for in terms of business and operations. These are my teams here, my management chain.
In an environment where more than 40% of gamers are female, stronger action would have sent a strong message to the industry. It won’t be today. However, he would like to point out that we must continue to promote the position of women in the industry.
Phil Spencer needs to think more about this. The industry needs to think about this. […] And now when you talk about video games that tell stories and share empathy between different groups based on the fact that I can tell my story through my lens and you can play this game, then the voices that tell those stories meet the Decisions about what content to show, what content is good, need to be diverse in the broadest sense of the word for us to achieve the goals we have in the game.