Blizzard president J Allen Brack leaves amidst lawsuit
In a turn of events that might not be as shocking as you think, Blizzard president J Allen Brack has decided to leave the company amidst a lawsuit of discrimination and sexual harassment.
Activision Blizzard has been rocked by a sleuth of claims about alleged harassment and discrimination, including homophobia, sexism, and racism. It has led many, players, fans and those outside of the games industry, to make a stand against the harassment faced at Activision Blizzard. Last Wednesday, Activision Blizzard staff members did a walk-out in protest.
Today, as announced via Blizzard’s official website, J Allen Brack has left the company in order to “pursue new opportunities” outside of Activision Blizzard. Coincidentally, today is the day where Activision Blizzard will report their quarterly earnings. According to Axios’ Stephen Totilo, “Brack, as head of Blizzard, usually is on those calls.”
Instead of a singular replacement of Brack as Blizzard president, the role will be taken over by Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra and they will be co-presidents. Oneal has worked as the former head of Vicarious Visions studio, now owned by Activision, and has been Executive Vice President of Development at Blizzard since January. As for Ybarra, he spent 7 years as as a senior executive at Microsoft’s Xbox division, and most recently working at Blizzard as Executive Vice President & General Manager of Platform and Technology.
Interestingly enough, the statement from Activision Blizzard made no mention of the allegations against the company, nor the staff walkout. There was also no mention from Activision about Frances Townsend, CCO of Activision who has been blocking colleagues over on Twitter who took notice of her questionable tweet about whistleblowing and the problems that it brings. Some of these colleagues include people who are still currently working at Activision Blizzard.
The stories coming out about Activision Blizzard are still ongoing.
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