That didn’t last very long, but it was to be anticipated.
Following up on the Activision-Blizzard case, Jennifer O’neal – you know, the first female executive vice president of the company since August? – she’s handed in her resignation after less than three months in her new role after being promoted from head of Vicarious Visions which was owned by Activision and then merged in with Blizzard.
O’Neal plans on leaving by the end of this year and until such time she will be shifted into a separate, likely underlying role, at Blizzard. Mike Ybarra, the other half of the pair that were co-leading Blizzard up to this point after stepping in following the resignation of original company president, J. Allen Brack, now has full reign over Blizzard effective immediately.
O’neal claims that the reasoning for her departure is due to her being “tokenized, marginalized and discriminated against.”
Is she just jumping on the bandwagon to join in on the accusations against the supposed Blizzard “frat-boy culture” among everything else being thrown against this mega-corporation or was she genuinely suppressed as claimed?
There have been claims of emails from O’neal in which she “professed a lack of faith in Activision’s leadership to turn the culture around” as well as revealing that she, too, had been sexually harassed previously within the company; it also came to light that she’s being paid less than male co-leader Ybarra (is there actual reasoning for this or is it just further part of the discrimination?). There was also a direct statement to one of the company’s legal team members stating “it was clear that the company would never prioritize our people in the right way.”
According to a piece by Kotaku, an article details a party in 2007 that O’neal had attended along with Bobby Kotick – Activision-Blizzard CEO – at which there were “scantily clad women dancing on stripper poles” and the DJ “encouraged female attendees to drink more so the men would have a better time.”
Kotick obviously claims that he “didn’t remember attending such a party”…which doesn’t exactly bode well for these claims against him.
One of the first public statements made by O’neal after stepping up for Blizzard was that Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 were making “great progress”, but now to no actual surprise with all of this continual chaos ensuing, these two highly anticipated titles have been delayed again; we’re likely looking at very late 2022 or more likely a 2023 release window.
With her resignation announcement, O’neal has said :
“I am doing this not because I am without hope for Blizzard, quite the opposite – I’m inspired by the passion of everyone here, working towards meaningful, lasting change with their whole hearts. This energy has inspired me to step out and explore how I can do more to have games and diversity intersect, and hopefully make a broader industry impact that will benefit Blizzard (and other studios) as well.”
(you can read her full message to fellow employees and fans here…A Message From Jen O’Neal)
It was also added that Activision-Blizzard-King (ABK) has agreed to support her efforts by handing over a $1 million grant to Women in Games International; the non-profit organization that O’neal is now serving as a board member to.
Kotick in the meantime has assured that he will be taking a salary drop to California’s minimum of $62 500 as well as receiving no bonuses or equities.
Blizzard also has plans in the works assuring to introduce a zero-tolerance for harassment policy, a minimum of a 50% increase in non-binary people and women employed by the company, diversity investments, increased visibility on pay equity, quarterly progress updates, and waiving the company’s required arbitration for sexual harassment and discrimination claims. This is according to a letter from CEO, Kotick, regarding the changes and progress being made within Blizzard.