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According to a report from Kotaku, Activision Blizzard has cut ties with Diablo IV game director Luis Barriga, lead designer Jesse McCree, and World of Warcraft designer Jonathan LeCraft. Kotaku has received this news from two unnamed, insider sources, but has reportedly received confirmation from an Activision Blizzard spokesperson after reaching out for comment, also adding “We have a deep, talented roster of developers already in place and new leaders have been assigned where appropriate. We are confident in our ability to continue progress, deliver amazing experiences to our players, and move forward to ensure a safe, productive work environment for all.”

While no reason for their dismissal was given, it comes in the wake of a flurry of sexual harassment allegations against the publishing giant, leading to a lawsuit from the State of California and the president of Blizzard stepping down.

Source

 

[inetkun]

I wonder when Bobby Kotick will step down

 

[leon315]

NEVER PREORDER THEIR GAME!

 

[The Catboy]

Hopefully we see Bobby leaving soon

 

[Kioku]

I wonder when Bobby Kotick will step down

Not soon enough.

 

[Dr_Faustus]

I wonder when Bobby Kotick will step down

Not likely, if he was it would be the last pillar to fall before this whole thing can be properly remade from the ground up.

Everyone else will likely fall before he does, and even if everyone around him wants him to go (even the investors of the company are sick of his existence and have been for a long while now) he will do everything in his power to sit pretty in his position at the top until they have something solid enough on his participation on all of this to drag him to the gallows. It will not seem likely, but given the amount of constant pressure on the situation that is continuing to unfold, one can hope it will happen.

 

[tech3475]

Hopefully we see Bobby leaving soon

The only reason I can see him leaving is the shareholders basically forcing him to along with a nice severance package.

 

[The Catboy]

The only reason I can see him leaving is the shareholders basically forcing him to along with a nice severance package.

Unfortunately, which would make seeing him go a bittersweet experience

 

[Dr_Faustus]

The only reason I can see him leaving is the shareholders basically forcing him to along with a nice severance package.

I doubt they would want to give him any more money than what he has already tried to take before. Lets not forget that the shareholders basically smacked his hands away from the companies money when he tried to give himself a considerably overly large bonus last year after letting go 800 some employees for unknown reasons. Kotick was basically trying to pocket money that would have otherwise gone to those employees if they still worked there and the shareholders were pissed.

Also said shareholders have pushed a second lawsuit on the company and Kotick for basically hiding the fact that there was an investigation of the company being done by the state. You can't do that to the people that are putting money into your company, you have to be transparent with them about any goings on in your company regardless if it affects your share numbers or not. Hiding that to keep your numbers from going low due to investor distrust in the company is a straight up violation against your investors. Its considered an outright scam level scenario in some cases. Kotick is going to have to either try to explain away this in some insane way, or he is going to be forcefully removed from his position in the company. Hopefully the latter happens and the investors prevail in getting him removed.

 

[Deleted member 534570]

Well, there goes our chance of ever getting Diablo 4...

 

[IncredulousP]

We are confident in our ability to continue progress, deliver amazing experiences to our players, and move forward to ensure a safe, productive work environment for all.”

I'm not so confident

 

[jt_1258]

interesting how there response sounds like they just do not care. we don't need you. you've already been replaced

 

[eyeliner]

Let's hope 'Diablo 4' also dies.
After the second, what came after was a catered to mobile lazy gamer thing.

We've got both games to enjoy, folks.

 

[XDel]

Sexual harassment is a two way road and can be done both overtly and covertly.

 

[Xzi]

Sexual harassment is a two way road and can be done both overtly and covertly.

No shit. Do you show up to birthday parties and scream, "OTHER PEOPLE HAVE BIRTHDAYS TOO Y'KNOW! ALL BIRTHDAYS MATTER!"

Anyway...it's good to see consequences for some of those involved, even if people at the top are just using that to cover their own asses.

 

[Hells Malice]

Hopefully doesn't affect Diablo 4 since they were actually making amazing work on it, but I doubt this'll change anything.

Meanwhile firing most of the top staff working on WoW sounds like a fantastic improvement.

 

[Chary]

If it's regarding the harassment stuff, then good, get out, begone. But it really only seems like base tier appeasement from blizzard-acti so they can look like they're so great and totally have fixed all the gross behavior of their company... By firing like 5 dudes total.

 

[EagleRuler]

I see

 

[Chrisssj2]

NEVER PREORDER THEIR GAME!

Never buy their game

 

[ZeroFX]

Hahahaha chaos to them! Let bankruptcy happen and all the employees gets fired.