The alliance consists of employees from all Activision studios , Blizzard and King. This includes the studios Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software, Vicarious Visions and Beenox. The first action the alliance has taken is to publish a response to the statement by CEO Bobby Kotick, which he released last week in response to the allegations.
The letter now drafted by the covenant came into the hands of IGN and has been published there in its entirety. The letter suggests that Kotick is not pushing for major changes within the company. The law firm WilmerHale is also criticized. WilmerHale has been hired by Kotick to investigate whether the allegations make sense. However, the employees said in the letter that WilmerHale has a reputation for disbanding unions and suppressing negotiations between large companies and employees. WilmerHale was recently deployed by Amazon for similar purposes. In addition, Activision is said to have already had a working relationship with WilmerHale prior to the allegations, resulting in a conflict of interest.
Since the California indictment two weeks ago, the situation surrounding Activision Blizzard has been in the news almost daily. For example, it was announced yesterday that Blizzard director J. Allen Brack is leaving the company. Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra take over his role together. It has now also been confirmed that Jesse Meschuk of Human Resources has left this week. Shareholders of the company also announced today that they would sue Activision Blizzard.
Several toxic work situations have also come to light, including a hotel room owned by Blizzard employees named after convicted rapist Bill Cosby and a case of a few years back when a Blizzard employee hung up cameras in the company bathroom.
