Blizzard Entertainment CEO Says “Rebuilding Your Trust” Is Top Priority Now

Blizzard’s CEO, Mike Morhaime, said in a recent interview that rebuilding trust is the company’s top priority now. This comes after gamers’ backlash over game developers using their personal data for profit-driven purposes.
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The “activision” is a video game company that makes games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Diablo. The company’s CEO said rebuilding your trust is the top priority now.

Blizzard Entertainment is the creator of this image.

Mike Ybarra, CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, has written a long blog post outlining the steps the firm is doing to better going ahead. It was posted on the company’s Inside Blizzard blog and is titled “Putting our teams and players at the forefront of everything we do.” It mentions repairing trust as a top goal.

“The work we’re doing to reestablish your confidence in Blizzard is our top priority right now and in the future.”

2021 will be a difficult year.

It would be an understatement to say that Activision Blizzard had a bumpy ride in 2021. Things have been chaotic, to say the least, with litigation over accusations of sexual misconduct and harassment, layoffs of QA contractors at Raven Software, and a walkout calling for CEO Bobby Kotick’s resignation. When you add in rumors of a big drop in sales for Call of Duty titles and server troubles for Diablo II: Resurrected, which resulted in yet another long article, it’s evident that the company’s player base isn’t pleased.

Taking Action

Microsoft just announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Mr. Ybarra has used this, without a doubt, one of the most important events of 2021 to reflect on the past while setting the framework for the future. Reading “forums, social postings, and letters from individuals within and outside of Blizzard” who articulated their opinions in “standing up for what is right” motivated him, he added. He stated that they are listening and “dedicated to reform” in the face of recent setbacks.

It’s been encouraging to see Blizzard work as creatively and tirelessly as we have during this difficult period (on top of a continuous epidemic). Navigating these hurdles, improving our development procedures, and reflecting on how we can enhance our culture demonstrates amazing strength and devotion to one another, our work, and the player communities.

Mr. Ybarra concluded his presentation with a list of current and planned actions. It contains a significant amount of activity aimed at fostering a business culture that is more supportive of its workers. The success of these schemes will determine management remuneration, including his own.

• We’re measuring our executive and management teams directly against culture improvement. This means their (and my own) success and compensation will directly depend on our overall success in creating a safe, inclusive, and creative work environment at Blizzard. • We’re dedicating more full-time roles and resources to improving our culture. All too often, this important effort falls to employee resource groups, filled with people who already have full-time jobs. A few of the leadership positions we’ve established for this new team include: • a Culture leader who will help us maintain the best aspects of what we have today, and change and evolve where needed to ensure everyone brings their best self to Blizzard • a new organizational leader for Human Resources who will build trust, empower our teams, and help foster a safe, positive work environment for everyone • a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) leader solely focused on our progress across multiple efforts in this area • We are committed to staffing these teams as a priority. • We tripled the size of our compliance and investigation teams and have articulated clear accountability for unacceptable behavior. This applies to all employees at Blizzard, including leadership and management. • We have shared representation data internally with our teams and have set goals around improvement across these metrics. • We’ve put in place an upward feedback program so that employees have confidence in evaluating management, and we will use this to measure the quality and effectiveness of our managers.

Only time will tell whether Activision Blizzard’s fortunes will improve. The veteran publisher has a lot of work ahead of it, from hiring to consumer trust. Additionally, the game publishing and production industry has changed dramatically in recent years as publishers and studios alike react to the expanding epidemic.

Blizzard Entertainment is the source of this information (via Engadget)