The hustle and bustle surrounding the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and discrimination is now having its first visible consequences. The studio manager of Blizzard Entertainment has announced his resignation.
It will be a long time before Activision Blizzard calms down again. After the lawsuit filed by the State of California against the company, there is a lot of smoke in the framework and the employees are going to the barricades – even supported by Ubisoft employees who only faced similar problems months ago and have not yet seen them solved.
The event now has the first personal consequences. J. Allen Brack, studio manager of Blizzard Entertainment, has his Resignation declared and clears the space for a new top management.
Brack is replaced by a team. In the future, Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra are to lead the fortunes of the studio. Oneal has only been with the company since January and was previously Vice President of Development. The former head of Vicarious Visions, which was taken over by Blizzard, took care of the Diablo and Overwatch brands in the position. Your partner Ybarra is no stranger. He joined Blizzard in 2019 after having worked for Xbos for many years. As Executive Vice President at Blizzard, he was previously responsible for the further development of Battle.Net.
Oneal und Ybarra teilen sich künftig die Verantwortlichkeiten, unter anderem mit dem Ziel, das Arbeitsumfeld zu verbessern. Brack hinterließ noch ein Statement: “I am confident that Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will provide the leadership Blizzard needs to realize its full potential and will accelerate the pace of change. I anticipate they will do so with passion and enthusiasm and that they can be trusted to lead with the highest levels of integrity and commitment to the components of our culture that make Blizzard so special.”
Everyone’s resignation in favor of a two-man team that has not been with the company that long can be seen as a sign that Blizzard is ready to get rid of old structures and the problems that have grown with them. For the time being, however, it should only be a first sign, there is still a lot going to happen.
