17 ms·

New Leadership at Blizzard

252 points by bdz 5y ago

serverholic 5y ago
Sounds like a good change.
- xnyan 5y ago
  Blizzard has not been run as an independent studio since 2008 when it merged with Activision. The head(s) of BLizzard are just a layer of management under Bobby Kotick who has been the leader for more than a decade. I can't see this as anything besides blame shifting.
sudhirj 5y ago
Nicely decisive move, going straight for the head. And the optics of a diverse leader duo look great given some of the problems.
- mehlmao 5y ago
  The head is Bobby Kotick, who has his own sexual harassment allegations. Activision won't do a thing about him or Frances Townsend.
- tapoxi 5y ago
  Going straight for the head would mean replacing Bobby Kotick. If he doesn't resign then J. Allen Brack is just a scapegoat.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- caymanjim 5y ago
  The optics are that they thought they needed a woman for PR, but didn't have any confidence in her. I'm not saying she's incapable, but that's what the optics are.
- dncornholio 5y ago
  I'm seriously wondering if you got paid to post this comment
  - dang 5y ago
    Please follow the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  Blizzard tried the good optics strategy for years now. Ironically companies that emphasize it are the ones sexual harassment seems to happen the most.
techpression 5y ago
New leadership? He took over when it was engulfed in flames (he’s just the scapegoat), they need to clean up above him. This is a CEO and board problem, who let this run rampant for over a decade.
- hans1729 5y ago
  "They expect one of us in the wreckage, brother."
  - raxxorrax 5y ago
    Well, at least someone has started the fire.
  - throwaway284534 5y ago
    I know that HN discourages low effort replies, but I have to tell you that this comment made me smile. A Bane reference that’s also on topic is simply chef kiss.
    - dstick 5y ago
      Then in order to help you make your case against yourself I waive your statement that the comment was low effort on your behalf. It truly was, _chef kiss_
  - xeromal 5y ago
    I love how this was posted in reddit 2 hours before this comment. Who shot first?
  - notapenny 5y ago
    I couldn't help but immediately think of this line from Margin Call when I saw the headline. I won't spoil it but at one point the CEO and someone are sitting in a room and he says to the person: "I need a head for the shareholders".
- nerdponx 5y ago
  Not sure if this is a typo or a new solecism, but I think you meant "rampant" instead of "rampart".
shard972 5y ago
?
Clubber 5y ago
He had only been in the position for less than three years, this has been going on for over a decade. I'm sure he's partially culpable, but I also think he might the fall guy allowing Bobby Kotick (CEO) to stay in place.
- dtech 5y ago
  the allegations are coming from the WoW team for a major part, and he was the Executive Producer and VP of WoW for forever.
- blacktriangle 5y ago
  He's also easily the most publicly hated manager at Blizzard thanks to his "you think you do but you don't" speech. Perfect scapegoat.
  - JohnWhigham 5y ago
    Ironically enough, looking at the current state of WoW Classic, he was 100% correct. Given Blizzard in its current state, you don't want whatever nostalgic offering they give you, because it will inevitably be butchered.
    - blibble 5y ago
      people wanted classic wow, which they got (and was well received) whereas TBC has a load of extra changes, plus the boosts, which makes it a completely different game
afrocious 5y ago
What about new leadership at Activision? I'm still confused about the business relationship between Activision and Blizzard.
- tapoxi 5y ago
  Activision-Blizzard (the parent) has 3 major divisions: Activision, Blizzard, and King. This does nothing to address the problems at the parent company (Activision-Blizzard) or Blizzard's siblings (King, Activision)
hannasanarion 5y ago
Sounds like Bobby Kotick has chosen his scapegoat. They're not even being called "president", now, just "co-leaders": he's taking the opportunity to consolidate more power too.
- apozem 5y ago
  Jason Schreier: > Titles mean a lot in the corporate world. Until 2018, Mike Morhaime was CEO. When Brack took over, he was president. Now, Oneal and Ybarra are described as "co-leaders." > A clear glimpse at who's really in charge: Bobby Kotick https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1422536264851640320?s=20 https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1422536264851640320...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- NewLogic 5y ago
  Crazy Bobby is not even a billionaire considering how unethical his leadership methods are.
  - hannasanarion 5y ago
    Bobby is definitely a billionaire. His net worth is currently estimated at $7 billion. After all, how could you possibly not be a billionaire when you're reaping a salary of $150 million for 12 years?
    - WJW 5y ago
      By spending more than 66.66667 million USD per year, obviously. The same reason that my personal net worth is quite a bit lower than the sum of my incomes over the years.
    - pyrrhotech 5y ago
      150 million after tax = 75 million. Spend half and save half, left with 37.5 million. Investing 3 million a month at 10% returns gets you to 800M after 12 years. It's damn hard to become a billionaire, even when you make 150M. Most reports I've seen have Kotick's net worth significantly less than 800M though. He's known as a very high spender
claaams 5y ago
Fire bobby kotick and then I'll care. Remove him from the board at coca cola too.
mabbo 5y ago
I think it's a good move, but I think it would be better if they were more open about why this is happening. I think they need to explain that this is the first step in a larger move to fix their culture, and what the next steps are. They need to differentiate between "We screwed up, something is wrong, and it's time for real change" vs "We have applied lipstick to the pig, now please go away".
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  > why this is happening They hope that the emotions get attached to the person fired so the company can get rid of it. I don't think there is any information who has done what, so someone has to go. Severance will probably make for a soft landing.
Cypher 5y ago
Blizzard is beyond repair
- claaams 5y ago
  I like battlegrounds but I've uninstalled their games and launcher from my devices.
moksly 5y ago
I love how easy it is for enterprise organisations to make the smart moves once shit the fan. Two good choices for leadership both based on their previous work and the fact that they are new within Blizzard and aren’t tainted by the horrible working culture like every other current high level manger. Of course it’s something they’ve likely prepared to do as a contingency since January. I don’t agree with people calling J. Allen Brack a scapegoat considering his role in this. There are YouTube clips of Blizcon WoW panels being lead by him where the named director that I can’t recall the name or is making misogynistic jokes that the panel continues with. He’s also worked so close to these people that he must have known and failed to act, unlike the head of Activision. Bobby Kotick may be disliked, I don’t know much about him other than that, but anyone that’s worked at the higher levels of an Enterprise organisation knows that the key decision makers are so far detached from reality that it’s sometimes painful to work with them. Not that they are delusional or incompetent, but they simply operate on a whole other plane than the rest of the organisation and that means you have to trust your governing body. Maybe Kotick needs to go as well, but I don’t see any reason Blizzard shouldn’t be making this move and they should frankly be replacing every single manager and middle manager that has been anywhere near the disgusting bullshit if their goal is to alter the culture.
- lolinder 5y ago
  Kotick settled a lawsuit about a 2007 incident (before the Blizzard merger) where he allowed ongoing sexual harassment of a flight attendant on his private jet, then fired her when she complained about it. He has a history, and it's reasonable to suspect that he is a primary source of the rot. Brack is obviously not innocent, but that he's the only one being ousted does suggest that Kotick is trying to lay all the blame on him. https://kotaku.com/activision-boss-loses-legal-battle-over-sexual-harassme-452575586 https://kotaku.com/activision-boss-loses-legal-battle-over-s...
  - delusional 5y ago
    How does the CEO of a company making mediocre (compared to the talent the seem to have available) games have a private jet?
cletus 5y ago
Make no mistake: this is Bobby Kotick trying to save his job. He may well succeed. I hope his head also makes it to the chopping block. Firstly, Brack was only president for 2 years and a lot of these incidents happened prior BUT if you're in charge you're responsible. That's part of the deal that comes with that giant pay check. You don't get to say "it's not my fault". So Brack absolutely should go because he's seemingly failed to correct the toxic culture. You'll note the email talks about "Blizzard", not "Activision Blizzard". This is how you can tell Kotick is distancing himself from this. It's "Activision Blizzard" when things are going well and "Blizzard" when it's not. Kotick is I'm sure busy selling this narrative that Blizzard is an autonomous unit. It's not. It's fully Activision at this point. Activision Blizzard has squandered their most valuable properties. The only thing propping up WoW is a 15 year old version of the game that's quickly being ruined with the exact micro-transactions that ruined the game to begin with. Does anyone still care about Overwatch? Prediction: Diablo 4 is going to disappoint. This is the same company that brought you Diablo 3 after all. As for the new co-leaders, ugh... this just screams PR. One of them is a woman of course. I'm not saying she's unqualified (although both of them are relatively recent hires, interestingly). But you know given the lawsuit that this was going to happen. But the main issue is that there's two leaders. We all know countries need two presidents, armies need two commanders, etc. So what this suggests is that Ibarra had the confidence of Kotick and the board, she would now be president. So she's co-president because of the lawsuit. It may not be true but that's how people are going to interpret it. To get out this rot it can't stop at changing the executives. Blizzard honestly needs someone to come in and clean house. This goes beyond the lawsuit, which is no doubt a relatively small minority. This is about half the company probably being useless.
- AutumnCurtain 5y ago
  She's not even "co-president", just "co-leader". Morhaime was CEO, Brack president. Odd title deflation in play here.
  - void_mint 5y ago
    When things get totally rebranded into "Blizzard, an Activision Studio" the title deflation will make sense.
kar1181 5y ago
Unfortunately Blizzard is done. There's some debate to be had if that's a bad thing, but it's now a brand and IP holding company with some in-house development.
- icu 5y ago
  I agree that the odds are that Ybarra and O'Neal can't turn the ship around... but there is still a non-zero chance. Seems like Mike Ybarra is a 'Mr Business' type coming from Microsoft XBox who brags about "growth and engagement across services for Gaming at Microsoft" on his LinkedIn (which I don't think bodes well for removing the crazy micro transactions). Jennifer O'Neal isn't that amazing either... she was the head of Vicarious Visions who have never made original IP, and let's be fair, have basically made mediocre games except for Destiny 2.
  - Andrex 5y ago
    Vicarious Visions handled the Wii versions of Guitar Hero far, far better than the horrible versions of Rock Band available for the system. I'll always appreciate that.
  - toast0 5y ago
    > she was the head of Vicarious Visions who have never made original IP Well it's right in the name, so I'm not sure why you'd expect them to build out their own visions. Anyway, Blizzard has a lot of IP that people already like, doing work in the same universe is mostly fine. Open a side studio to develop new and different things.
    - icu 5y ago
      My fault, I didn't articulate my thoughts clearly enough. Essentially my belief is that if a studio creates its own IP successfully, it's indicative of talent executing a well planned risky project. A positive example is, Sucker Punch with Ghost of Tsushima. Sucker Punch could have kept banging out InFAMOUS games but they created a wonderful, beautiful game. A negative example is CD Projekt Red with Cyberpunk 2077 which came out at roughly the same time. The game was a mess and they flushed billions of dollars of goodwill and future pre-order money by bad management decisions that forced a release before Christmas, and put the devs through a crazy crunch. Now when bringing this back to Blizzard, let's take WoW as a first example... the main game works on having an exciting expansion which is analogous to creating new IP. Player subs rise with good expansions (BC, WotLK, Legion) and free fall with bad ones (WoD, MoP possibly but I think that was more a style issue than substance). If Blizzard is to thrive I think it needs to create compelling new iterative games (like WoW xpacs and D4), but also totally new compelling like Overwatch. It used to be that Blizzard never "missed" with its releases. You could buy a Blizzard game, in a genre you never played, and you were guaranteed a great time. I'd say 'Classic' Blizzard (before Activision) had Nintendo-level quality. Now Blizzard has the problem of never "hitting". Add in the terrible work conditions and fans are put into a terrible situation of loving something made by a company that isn't worthy of admiration. Imho, new leadership needs to have the ability to execute in a big way to overcome the current trajectory, and that's going to take carefully calculated, and well executed risks... something that the new co-leaders have yet to demonstrate having.
andrewzah 5y ago
Firing a scapegoat is meaningless. Bobby Kotick needs to be fired if any real change is to be done.
- nobodyandproud 5y ago
  Given Activision/Blizzard is a public company, investor activism is very possible. Some shareholders just need to care enough and have enough time on their hands.
flerovium 5y ago
How the mighty have fallen. I miss the days when they produced a solid game, charged a single fee, and let a community grow organically around it. SC was a league of its own. WoW was originally created. Let the community tell you what it wants. It's sad to see institutions decay like this.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
VikingCoder 5y ago
I had to look it up, I don't see any evidence that Blizzard's Michael Ybarra [1] is related to Joe Ybarra [2] who produced The Bard's Tale (1985). So he apparently has nothing to do with Ybarra's Mystical Shield (MYSH) and Ybarra's Mystical Coat of Armor (YMCA). I can't even tell you how many times I typed YMCA on my Apple IIc, playing Bard's Tale. It was a lot, though. [1] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Ybarra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Ybarra [2] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Ybarra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Ybarra
mkl95 5y ago
As someone who has invested 1000s of hours in EA and Blizzard games, it never crossed my mind that one day I would prefer EA to Blizz. EA is like MongoDB, you know you are getting a flawed product that's nevertheless fun to use. Blizzard is like Oracle's MySQL, they try very hard to be taken seriously only to eventually stab you in the back.
- kevlarrelic 5y ago
  Sorry I'm new to MySQL, in what way did they stab you in the back? Just curious about the analogy!
  - mkl95 5y ago
    Obscure / unexpected behaviour in production, MySQL caused little data disasters at every company where we used it
  - eknkc 5y ago
    Do not trust anything it does implicitly (like casting stuff, running triggers reliably, locking properly etc). Nothing follows logic so if you assume something would work a particular way, it will most definitely do the wrong thing instead. It is fine otherwise. In a serious tone, I ran large apps on MySQL, it works and performans fine. But makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. Go with PostgreSQL if you can choose / it is not a big hassle.
- udbhavs 5y ago
  Then Valve must be Postgres (I guess it would have been CDPR before the whole cyberpunk fiasco)
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
    With the number of amazing independent games out now, like Outer Wilds (not Worlds!)… I’ve found sometimes I just really enjoy an Excel Add-on.
jrockway 5y ago
I kind of agree with the other comments that Blizzard is probably done. It will be interesting to see what emerges as the successor. They have made spectacular games over the years and those franchises will be sorely missed. But someone, someday, will probably do even better. I hold on to a scrap of hope that somehow they will turn it around. But I can't think of a Fortune 500 that ever turned it around, so I can't be too optimistic.
njharman 5y ago
More than one person is responsible for the illegal culture. More than one person should go. And they should be fired before having opportunity to resign.
- inetknght 5y ago
  > More than one person is responsible for the illegal culture Firing them sends a better message than resigning. But if the culture is illegal then they should be charged as such. Otherwise this same problem will continue to fester elsewhere.
NonContro 5y ago
There's a big systematic inequality in gaming, particularly PC gaming where Blizzard's products are most popular. Blizzard has its own launcher, which means they can sell directly to customers, at 0% commissions. Any new Indies have to go through the monopolist Steam, which means a 30% commission and no direct access to their fanbase. If we want better conditions in game development, it needs to be easier for disgruntled employees to leave and start their own companies. That means, explicitly, that Steam (holding the monopoly position on PC) needs to be pressured to lower its commission (the 15% level Apple and Google are moving towards seems reasonable) and offer the same terms to Indies as they do to AAA.
emptyfile 5y ago
Too little too late.
mdip 5y ago
Good for them. Though, I wonder how this ever was allowed to get this bad in the first place[0]. Perhaps it's how I was raised, my employment history, or I've just "gotten lucky" with (larger) employers[1], but it blows my mind that any large employer allowed an employee to come within a 100 yards of harassing behavior. I worked in various lead/senior roles in IT Infrastructure, security, support and development at a 5,000-20,000 (depending on the time) employee telecom. I know of one incident in the 17 years I was there that was serious related to sexual harassment. In that case, the "victimized employee" remained with the company, the harasser handled by suspension during a (hours long) investigation where they were fired with cause (also the only case in the US that I'm aware of). I was asked to collect his computer; yeah, firing him was a good call. Women and minorities in IT -- both technical and management (VP was and currently still is the same woman) were represented well above the average[2] and promoted at no different rate. On our team and among our larger team -- 17 years -- all of the staff acted like adults (some had quirks, but nothing more). I don't ever recall a frat-boy like attitude and I know none of my co-workers would tolerate it. I don't even recall an incident of inappropriate humor. The only thing that came close was one colleague who dropped an F-Bomb casually about every 3 words (usually a "Fckin'" or "Fcked Up" -- despite the word, I don't recall him using the word sexually). He lasted a year or so and didn't get fired for the F-Bombs -- everyone talked about it but nobody really cared[3]. [0] In fairness, I've not followed this story closely, so that may be my perception. [1] The tempting explanation of "I didn't experience it, myself, therefore I was blind to it" isn't something I can prove I wasn't affected by, but my unusual set of jobs/position in the company allowed for few places to hide this kind of behavior from me at times. [2] I'm always uncomfortable mentioning this -- we had higher than average because we actively recruited from places that would increase the number of minority candidates. We did not in any way apply hiring practices that favored under-represented races/genders -- and ended up having a very diverse team. [3] I'm not suggesting harassing/racist behavior be ignored, however, another part of being an adult is tolerating things that we feel are "moral faults" in others without being uptight about it. "It takes a lot of people to make a world" ... My casually-swearing colleague never swore at people or about people -- he swore about things sometimes, and swore casually, even though he chose a word that many in the US feel to be among the most offensive profanities, co-workers used to just comment about "how strange it is to hear so much profanity out of one guy when nobody else is swearing at all".
dmead 5y ago
I've been playing starcraft off an on since the 90s. what am i supposed to replace it with?
- screye 5y ago
  Good time to start looking at Age of Empires 4. > At E3 2021 Microsoft announced AOE4 would come to Game Pass on PC on October 28, 2021. If the space themes & generic strategy are more important to you, then check you the XCOM games. If you want a brutally competitive game maintained by a passionate developer, an active community and has long term support then try Dota 2. (warning - it will consume your life) If you just wanna build, then city skylines and it's amazing DLCs will keep you busy.
  - haswell 5y ago
    And for what it's worth, AOE2 is still going strong. With the remaster and continuing flow of useful DLC, I still spend quite a bit of time playing.
  - brailsafe 5y ago
    AOE4 sounds cool, didn't know it was coming out. As for Cities Skylines, I kind of lost interest, unfortunately in favour of WoW again of all things. I'd love to a see a very polished 2nd version of it that can scale down to be run passably on my MBP like WoW.
  - dmead 5y ago
    It's really the mechanics of it that keep me there. My mmr floats around high diamond to low masters depending on how much I play. Getting into a slow game like city skylines isn't what I'm after, just the competitive aspect of it. I guess AOE would be a good substitute or maybe supreme commander.
obmelvin 5y ago
Based on talking to a friend who used to work at Blizzard, and was sad to leave his dream job, the main damage is long past. Key employees left over a year ago at this point. I wish the new leaders well, assuming they sincerely wish to make positive change, but the soul of the company is gone
- nobodyandproud 5y ago
  Any insider scoops on why Jeff Kaplan left? Any chance he was caught up in this as well, months before it became news?
dmix 5y ago
Weird how their dedication to HR practices are highlighted but nothing about making high quality games that people enjoy. Is that just supposed to be a given? When these big companies start to get older they always seem to prioritize the organization itself instead of the value they provide to customers.
- toofy 5y ago
  > When these big companies start to get older they always seem to prioritize the organization itself instead of the value they provide to customers. Do ya think this is an age issue or a size thing. (or maybe a bit of both?) I don’t have data to back this up, but it sure seems like once a company reaches a certain scale it becomes more about cutting quality than building a better product. I absolutely recognize the forces that drive this and I could definitely be imagining a lot of it due to a growing sense of jadedness, but it sure feels true more often than not.
- PoignardAzur 5y ago
  They're in the middle of an HR scandal first and foremost (though people are mad about they game design decisions too). It makes sense they're focusing on the HR part.
kesor 5y ago
A two-headed hydra is an excellent way to improve proper decision making in a crumbling company.
- Andrex 5y ago
  Now I'm wondering if these two get fired, if four more "co-leaders" will take their place.
- ghostbrainalpha 5y ago
  I think two-headed is actually the best way to do a lot of executive jobs. One person to analyze information, ask questions, and make policy decisions. One person, to have meetings communicating those decisions to everyone who needs to know. Do interviews. Collect feedback. It's not like one person does all the work, and the other person sits through all the boring meetings. That shit never works. But one person pursuing new goals and change, and the other person maintaining current responsibilities can work really well. A lot of CEO's have named this "co-lead" their chief of staff, and they have a shocking amount of power for someone unfamiliar with that position.
keymone 5y ago
> Both leaders are deeply committed to all of our employees; to the work ahead to ensure Blizzard is the safest, most welcoming workplace possible for women, and people of any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or background; to upholding and reinforcing our values; and to rebuilding your trust. what a load of bullshit. all that trust was lost when those two were already in leadership positions.
_RPL5_ 5y ago
WoW has been my main game since I was a teenager, and for the past decade it's been lurching up (Legion) and down (WoD), but mostly down (BFA, SL). It seems like Blizzard is out of ideas with WoW. They are like a tired writer who is trying to edit a paragraph trying to make it read better, but ultimately makes it worse with the edits. Health of their games aside, here is to hoping that they at least take care of their employees moving forward. The thing that's most disheartening about the harassment allegations is how many former female employees (50+) came out on twitter to collaborate the claims of run-away toxicity. Not something I expected from a company that positions itself as the "wholesome gaming company of your childhood." Whatever it takes for them to clean up their workplace, they need to do it. The games, too, will be better for it. Workplace toxicity doesn't just lead to harassment, it kills collaboration and creativity.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ndkwj 5y ago
Some comments here remind me of people who still refuse to buy German cars.
HelloNurse 5y ago
Summary of plausible bad reasons to appoint two "co-leaders" where one would suffice: - Both candidates had such strong claims on the #1 spot, and so much influence, that the company was forced to promote both to avoid losing one of them. Hiring an outsider, like a sensible and earnest company would have done, would have alienated both rather than only one. Is Activision known as a fractious organization? - They really wanted Oneal, but they added Ybarra to avoid looking like they had undergone a feminist coup. Because they care about what their users think of them, and this is what they think of their users. - They really wanted Ybarra, but they added Oneal to give an impression of greater change, just because she is a woman. - Both candidates weren't considered really qualified as a sole "leader", but there was hope that they could handle the crisis together instead. Which implies personal conflicts, poor personnel quality (not necessarily Oneal and Ybarra, of course) or both. Even worse theories would be easy to think of, but since Blizzard executives can be expected to read HN discussions about them speculation about what they are doing would be pointlessly cruel.
peterthehacker 5y ago
Whenever I see a business try “co-leader” stuff I think of that episode of the office where Jim and Michael are promoted to “co-managers”, then Oscar comments, dripping with sarcasm: > Look, it doesn’t take a genius to know that any organization thrives when it has two leaders. Go ahead, name a country that doesn’t have two presidents, a boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be without the popes? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wF8jmFoQ7zM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wF8jmFoQ7zM
seanp2k2 5y ago
I wonder if Townsend will be next https://www.activisionblizzard.com/leadership/frances-townsend https://www.activisionblizzard.com/leadership/frances-townse...

252 points by bdz 5y ago

serverholic 5y ago

Sounds like a good change.

xnyan 5y ago
Blizzard has not been run as an independent studio since 2008 when it merged with Activision. The head(s) of BLizzard are just a layer of management under Bobby Kotick who has been the leader for more than a decade. I can't see this as anything besides blame shifting.

sudhirj 5y ago

Nicely decisive move, going straight for the head. And the optics of a diverse leader duo look great given some of the problems.

mehlmao 5y ago
The head is Bobby Kotick, who has his own sexual harassment allegations. Activision won't do a thing about him or Frances Townsend.
tapoxi 5y ago
Going straight for the head would mean replacing Bobby Kotick. If he doesn't resign then J. Allen Brack is just a scapegoat.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
caymanjim 5y ago
The optics are that they thought they needed a woman for PR, but didn't have any confidence in her. I'm not saying she's incapable, but that's what the optics are.
dncornholio 5y ago
I'm seriously wondering if you got paid to post this comment
- dang 5y ago
  Please follow the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
raxxorrax 5y ago
Blizzard tried the good optics strategy for years now. Ironically companies that emphasize it are the ones sexual harassment seems to happen the most.

techpression 5y ago

New leadership? He took over when it was engulfed in flames (he’s just the scapegoat), they need to clean up above him. This is a CEO and board problem, who let this run rampant for over a decade.

hans1729 5y ago
"They expect one of us in the wreckage, brother."
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  Well, at least someone has started the fire.
- throwaway284534 5y ago
  I know that HN discourages low effort replies, but I have to tell you that this comment made me smile. A Bane reference that’s also on topic is simply chef kiss.
  - dstick 5y ago
    Then in order to help you make your case against yourself I waive your statement that the comment was low effort on your behalf. It truly was, _chef kiss_
- xeromal 5y ago
  I love how this was posted in reddit 2 hours before this comment. Who shot first?
- notapenny 5y ago
  I couldn't help but immediately think of this line from Margin Call when I saw the headline. I won't spoil it but at one point the CEO and someone are sitting in a room and he says to the person: "I need a head for the shareholders".
nerdponx 5y ago
Not sure if this is a typo or a new solecism, but I think you meant "rampant" instead of "rampart".

shard972 5y ago

Clubber 5y ago

He had only been in the position for less than three years, this has been going on for over a decade. I'm sure he's partially culpable, but I also think he might the fall guy allowing Bobby Kotick (CEO) to stay in place.

dtech 5y ago
the allegations are coming from the WoW team for a major part, and he was the Executive Producer and VP of WoW for forever.
blacktriangle 5y ago
He's also easily the most publicly hated manager at Blizzard thanks to his "you think you do but you don't" speech. Perfect scapegoat.
- JohnWhigham 5y ago
  Ironically enough, looking at the current state of WoW Classic, he was 100% correct. Given Blizzard in its current state, you don't want whatever nostalgic offering they give you, because it will inevitably be butchered.
  - blibble 5y ago
    people wanted classic wow, which they got (and was well received) whereas TBC has a load of extra changes, plus the boosts, which makes it a completely different game

afrocious 5y ago

What about new leadership at Activision? I'm still confused about the business relationship between Activision and Blizzard.

tapoxi 5y ago
Activision-Blizzard (the parent) has 3 major divisions: Activision, Blizzard, and King. This does nothing to address the problems at the parent company (Activision-Blizzard) or Blizzard's siblings (King, Activision)

hannasanarion 5y ago

Sounds like Bobby Kotick has chosen his scapegoat. They're not even being called "president", now, just "co-leaders": he's taking the opportunity to consolidate more power too.

apozem 5y ago
Jason Schreier: > Titles mean a lot in the corporate world. Until 2018, Mike Morhaime was CEO. When Brack took over, he was president. Now, Oneal and Ybarra are described as "co-leaders." > A clear glimpse at who's really in charge: Bobby Kotick https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1422536264851640320?s=20 https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1422536264851640320...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
NewLogic 5y ago
Crazy Bobby is not even a billionaire considering how unethical his leadership methods are.
- hannasanarion 5y ago
  Bobby is definitely a billionaire. His net worth is currently estimated at $7 billion. After all, how could you possibly not be a billionaire when you're reaping a salary of $150 million for 12 years?
  - WJW 5y ago
    By spending more than 66.66667 million USD per year, obviously. The same reason that my personal net worth is quite a bit lower than the sum of my incomes over the years.
  - pyrrhotech 5y ago
    150 million after tax = 75 million. Spend half and save half, left with 37.5 million. Investing 3 million a month at 10% returns gets you to 800M after 12 years. It's damn hard to become a billionaire, even when you make 150M. Most reports I've seen have Kotick's net worth significantly less than 800M though. He's known as a very high spender

claaams 5y ago

Fire bobby kotick and then I'll care. Remove him from the board at coca cola too.

mabbo 5y ago

I think it's a good move, but I think it would be better if they were more open about why this is happening. I think they need to explain that this is the first step in a larger move to fix their culture, and what the next steps are. They need to differentiate between "We screwed up, something is wrong, and it's time for real change" vs "We have applied lipstick to the pig, now please go away".

raxxorrax 5y ago
> why this is happening They hope that the emotions get attached to the person fired so the company can get rid of it. I don't think there is any information who has done what, so someone has to go. Severance will probably make for a soft landing.

Cypher 5y ago

Blizzard is beyond repair

claaams 5y ago
I like battlegrounds but I've uninstalled their games and launcher from my devices.

moksly 5y ago

I love how easy it is for enterprise organisations to make the smart moves once shit the fan. Two good choices for leadership both based on their previous work and the fact that they are new within Blizzard and aren’t tainted by the horrible working culture like every other current high level manger. Of course it’s something they’ve likely prepared to do as a contingency since January. I don’t agree with people calling J. Allen Brack a scapegoat considering his role in this. There are YouTube clips of Blizcon WoW panels being lead by him where the named director that I can’t recall the name or is making misogynistic jokes that the panel continues with. He’s also worked so close to these people that he must have known and failed to act, unlike the head of Activision. Bobby Kotick may be disliked, I don’t know much about him other than that, but anyone that’s worked at the higher levels of an Enterprise organisation knows that the key decision makers are so far detached from reality that it’s sometimes painful to work with them. Not that they are delusional or incompetent, but they simply operate on a whole other plane than the rest of the organisation and that means you have to trust your governing body. Maybe Kotick needs to go as well, but I don’t see any reason Blizzard shouldn’t be making this move and they should frankly be replacing every single manager and middle manager that has been anywhere near the disgusting bullshit if their goal is to alter the culture.

lolinder 5y ago
Kotick settled a lawsuit about a 2007 incident (before the Blizzard merger) where he allowed ongoing sexual harassment of a flight attendant on his private jet, then fired her when she complained about it. He has a history, and it's reasonable to suspect that he is a primary source of the rot. Brack is obviously not innocent, but that he's the only one being ousted does suggest that Kotick is trying to lay all the blame on him. https://kotaku.com/activision-boss-loses-legal-battle-over-sexual-harassme-452575586 https://kotaku.com/activision-boss-loses-legal-battle-over-s...
- delusional 5y ago
  How does the CEO of a company making mediocre (compared to the talent the seem to have available) games have a private jet?

cletus 5y ago

Make no mistake: this is Bobby Kotick trying to save his job. He may well succeed. I hope his head also makes it to the chopping block. Firstly, Brack was only president for 2 years and a lot of these incidents happened prior BUT if you're in charge you're responsible. That's part of the deal that comes with that giant pay check. You don't get to say "it's not my fault". So Brack absolutely should go because he's seemingly failed to correct the toxic culture. You'll note the email talks about "Blizzard", not "Activision Blizzard". This is how you can tell Kotick is distancing himself from this. It's "Activision Blizzard" when things are going well and "Blizzard" when it's not. Kotick is I'm sure busy selling this narrative that Blizzard is an autonomous unit. It's not. It's fully Activision at this point. Activision Blizzard has squandered their most valuable properties. The only thing propping up WoW is a 15 year old version of the game that's quickly being ruined with the exact micro-transactions that ruined the game to begin with. Does anyone still care about Overwatch? Prediction: Diablo 4 is going to disappoint. This is the same company that brought you Diablo 3 after all. As for the new co-leaders, ugh... this just screams PR. One of them is a woman of course. I'm not saying she's unqualified (although both of them are relatively recent hires, interestingly). But you know given the lawsuit that this was going to happen. But the main issue is that there's two leaders. We all know countries need two presidents, armies need two commanders, etc. So what this suggests is that Ibarra had the confidence of Kotick and the board, she would now be president. So she's co-president because of the lawsuit. It may not be true but that's how people are going to interpret it. To get out this rot it can't stop at changing the executives. Blizzard honestly needs someone to come in and clean house. This goes beyond the lawsuit, which is no doubt a relatively small minority. This is about half the company probably being useless.

AutumnCurtain 5y ago
She's not even "co-president", just "co-leader". Morhaime was CEO, Brack president. Odd title deflation in play here.
- void_mint 5y ago
  When things get totally rebranded into "Blizzard, an Activision Studio" the title deflation will make sense.

kar1181 5y ago

Unfortunately Blizzard is done. There's some debate to be had if that's a bad thing, but it's now a brand and IP holding company with some in-house development.

icu 5y ago
I agree that the odds are that Ybarra and O'Neal can't turn the ship around... but there is still a non-zero chance. Seems like Mike Ybarra is a 'Mr Business' type coming from Microsoft XBox who brags about "growth and engagement across services for Gaming at Microsoft" on his LinkedIn (which I don't think bodes well for removing the crazy micro transactions). Jennifer O'Neal isn't that amazing either... she was the head of Vicarious Visions who have never made original IP, and let's be fair, have basically made mediocre games except for Destiny 2.
- Andrex 5y ago
  Vicarious Visions handled the Wii versions of Guitar Hero far, far better than the horrible versions of Rock Band available for the system. I'll always appreciate that.
- toast0 5y ago
  > she was the head of Vicarious Visions who have never made original IP Well it's right in the name, so I'm not sure why you'd expect them to build out their own visions. Anyway, Blizzard has a lot of IP that people already like, doing work in the same universe is mostly fine. Open a side studio to develop new and different things.
  - icu 5y ago
    My fault, I didn't articulate my thoughts clearly enough. Essentially my belief is that if a studio creates its own IP successfully, it's indicative of talent executing a well planned risky project. A positive example is, Sucker Punch with Ghost of Tsushima. Sucker Punch could have kept banging out InFAMOUS games but they created a wonderful, beautiful game. A negative example is CD Projekt Red with Cyberpunk 2077 which came out at roughly the same time. The game was a mess and they flushed billions of dollars of goodwill and future pre-order money by bad management decisions that forced a release before Christmas, and put the devs through a crazy crunch. Now when bringing this back to Blizzard, let's take WoW as a first example... the main game works on having an exciting expansion which is analogous to creating new IP. Player subs rise with good expansions (BC, WotLK, Legion) and free fall with bad ones (WoD, MoP possibly but I think that was more a style issue than substance). If Blizzard is to thrive I think it needs to create compelling new iterative games (like WoW xpacs and D4), but also totally new compelling like Overwatch. It used to be that Blizzard never "missed" with its releases. You could buy a Blizzard game, in a genre you never played, and you were guaranteed a great time. I'd say 'Classic' Blizzard (before Activision) had Nintendo-level quality. Now Blizzard has the problem of never "hitting". Add in the terrible work conditions and fans are put into a terrible situation of loving something made by a company that isn't worthy of admiration. Imho, new leadership needs to have the ability to execute in a big way to overcome the current trajectory, and that's going to take carefully calculated, and well executed risks... something that the new co-leaders have yet to demonstrate having.

andrewzah 5y ago

Firing a scapegoat is meaningless. Bobby Kotick needs to be fired if any real change is to be done.

nobodyandproud 5y ago
Given Activision/Blizzard is a public company, investor activism is very possible. Some shareholders just need to care enough and have enough time on their hands.

flerovium 5y ago

How the mighty have fallen. I miss the days when they produced a solid game, charged a single fee, and let a community grow organically around it. SC was a league of its own. WoW was originally created. Let the community tell you what it wants. It's sad to see institutions decay like this.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

VikingCoder 5y ago

I had to look it up, I don't see any evidence that Blizzard's Michael Ybarra [1] is related to Joe Ybarra [2] who produced The Bard's Tale (1985). So he apparently has nothing to do with Ybarra's Mystical Shield (MYSH) and Ybarra's Mystical Coat of Armor (YMCA). I can't even tell you how many times I typed YMCA on my Apple IIc, playing Bard's Tale. It was a lot, though. [1] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Ybarra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Ybarra [2] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Ybarra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Ybarra

mkl95 5y ago

As someone who has invested 1000s of hours in EA and Blizzard games, it never crossed my mind that one day I would prefer EA to Blizz. EA is like MongoDB, you know you are getting a flawed product that's nevertheless fun to use. Blizzard is like Oracle's MySQL, they try very hard to be taken seriously only to eventually stab you in the back.

kevlarrelic 5y ago
Sorry I'm new to MySQL, in what way did they stab you in the back? Just curious about the analogy!
- mkl95 5y ago
  Obscure / unexpected behaviour in production, MySQL caused little data disasters at every company where we used it
- eknkc 5y ago
  Do not trust anything it does implicitly (like casting stuff, running triggers reliably, locking properly etc). Nothing follows logic so if you assume something would work a particular way, it will most definitely do the wrong thing instead. It is fine otherwise. In a serious tone, I ran large apps on MySQL, it works and performans fine. But makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. Go with PostgreSQL if you can choose / it is not a big hassle.
udbhavs 5y ago
Then Valve must be Postgres (I guess it would have been CDPR before the whole cyberpunk fiasco)
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
  With the number of amazing independent games out now, like Outer Wilds (not Worlds!)… I’ve found sometimes I just really enjoy an Excel Add-on.

jrockway 5y ago

I kind of agree with the other comments that Blizzard is probably done. It will be interesting to see what emerges as the successor. They have made spectacular games over the years and those franchises will be sorely missed. But someone, someday, will probably do even better. I hold on to a scrap of hope that somehow they will turn it around. But I can't think of a Fortune 500 that ever turned it around, so I can't be too optimistic.

njharman 5y ago

More than one person is responsible for the illegal culture. More than one person should go. And they should be fired before having opportunity to resign.

inetknght 5y ago
> More than one person is responsible for the illegal culture Firing them sends a better message than resigning. But if the culture is illegal then they should be charged as such. Otherwise this same problem will continue to fester elsewhere.

NonContro 5y ago

There's a big systematic inequality in gaming, particularly PC gaming where Blizzard's products are most popular. Blizzard has its own launcher, which means they can sell directly to customers, at 0% commissions. Any new Indies have to go through the monopolist Steam, which means a 30% commission and no direct access to their fanbase. If we want better conditions in game development, it needs to be easier for disgruntled employees to leave and start their own companies. That means, explicitly, that Steam (holding the monopoly position on PC) needs to be pressured to lower its commission (the 15% level Apple and Google are moving towards seems reasonable) and offer the same terms to Indies as they do to AAA.

emptyfile 5y ago

Too little too late.

mdip 5y ago

Good for them. Though, I wonder how this ever was allowed to get this bad in the first place[0]. Perhaps it's how I was raised, my employment history, or I've just "gotten lucky" with (larger) employers[1], but it blows my mind that any large employer allowed an employee to come within a 100 yards of harassing behavior. I worked in various lead/senior roles in IT Infrastructure, security, support and development at a 5,000-20,000 (depending on the time) employee telecom. I know of one incident in the 17 years I was there that was serious related to sexual harassment. In that case, the "victimized employee" remained with the company, the harasser handled by suspension during a (hours long) investigation where they were fired with cause (also the only case in the US that I'm aware of). I was asked to collect his computer; yeah, firing him was a good call. Women and minorities in IT -- both technical and management (VP was and currently still is the same woman) were represented well above the average[2] and promoted at no different rate. On our team and among our larger team -- 17 years -- all of the staff acted like adults (some had quirks, but nothing more). I don't ever recall a frat-boy like attitude and I know none of my co-workers would tolerate it. I don't even recall an incident of inappropriate humor. The only thing that came close was one colleague who dropped an F-Bomb casually about every 3 words (usually a "Fckin'" or "Fcked Up" -- despite the word, I don't recall him using the word sexually). He lasted a year or so and didn't get fired for the F-Bombs -- everyone talked about it but nobody really cared[3]. [0] In fairness, I've not followed this story closely, so that may be my perception. [1] The tempting explanation of "I didn't experience it, myself, therefore I was blind to it" isn't something I can prove I wasn't affected by, but my unusual set of jobs/position in the company allowed for few places to hide this kind of behavior from me at times. [2] I'm always uncomfortable mentioning this -- we had higher than average because we actively recruited from places that would increase the number of minority candidates. We did not in any way apply hiring practices that favored under-represented races/genders -- and ended up having a very diverse team. [3] I'm not suggesting harassing/racist behavior be ignored, however, another part of being an adult is tolerating things that we feel are "moral faults" in others without being uptight about it. "It takes a lot of people to make a world" ... My casually-swearing colleague never swore at people or about people -- he swore about things sometimes, and swore casually, even though he chose a word that many in the US feel to be among the most offensive profanities, co-workers used to just comment about "how strange it is to hear so much profanity out of one guy when nobody else is swearing at all".

dmead 5y ago

I've been playing starcraft off an on since the 90s. what am i supposed to replace it with?

screye 5y ago
Good time to start looking at Age of Empires 4. > At E3 2021 Microsoft announced AOE4 would come to Game Pass on PC on October 28, 2021. If the space themes & generic strategy are more important to you, then check you the XCOM games. If you want a brutally competitive game maintained by a passionate developer, an active community and has long term support then try Dota 2. (warning - it will consume your life) If you just wanna build, then city skylines and it's amazing DLCs will keep you busy.
- haswell 5y ago
  And for what it's worth, AOE2 is still going strong. With the remaster and continuing flow of useful DLC, I still spend quite a bit of time playing.
- brailsafe 5y ago
  AOE4 sounds cool, didn't know it was coming out. As for Cities Skylines, I kind of lost interest, unfortunately in favour of WoW again of all things. I'd love to a see a very polished 2nd version of it that can scale down to be run passably on my MBP like WoW.
- dmead 5y ago
  It's really the mechanics of it that keep me there. My mmr floats around high diamond to low masters depending on how much I play. Getting into a slow game like city skylines isn't what I'm after, just the competitive aspect of it. I guess AOE would be a good substitute or maybe supreme commander.

obmelvin 5y ago

Based on talking to a friend who used to work at Blizzard, and was sad to leave his dream job, the main damage is long past. Key employees left over a year ago at this point. I wish the new leaders well, assuming they sincerely wish to make positive change, but the soul of the company is gone

nobodyandproud 5y ago
Any insider scoops on why Jeff Kaplan left? Any chance he was caught up in this as well, months before it became news?

dmix 5y ago

Weird how their dedication to HR practices are highlighted but nothing about making high quality games that people enjoy. Is that just supposed to be a given? When these big companies start to get older they always seem to prioritize the organization itself instead of the value they provide to customers.

toofy 5y ago
> When these big companies start to get older they always seem to prioritize the organization itself instead of the value they provide to customers. Do ya think this is an age issue or a size thing. (or maybe a bit of both?) I don’t have data to back this up, but it sure seems like once a company reaches a certain scale it becomes more about cutting quality than building a better product. I absolutely recognize the forces that drive this and I could definitely be imagining a lot of it due to a growing sense of jadedness, but it sure feels true more often than not.
PoignardAzur 5y ago
They're in the middle of an HR scandal first and foremost (though people are mad about they game design decisions too). It makes sense they're focusing on the HR part.

kesor 5y ago

A two-headed hydra is an excellent way to improve proper decision making in a crumbling company.

Andrex 5y ago
Now I'm wondering if these two get fired, if four more "co-leaders" will take their place.
ghostbrainalpha 5y ago
I think two-headed is actually the best way to do a lot of executive jobs. One person to analyze information, ask questions, and make policy decisions. One person, to have meetings communicating those decisions to everyone who needs to know. Do interviews. Collect feedback. It's not like one person does all the work, and the other person sits through all the boring meetings. That shit never works. But one person pursuing new goals and change, and the other person maintaining current responsibilities can work really well. A lot of CEO's have named this "co-lead" their chief of staff, and they have a shocking amount of power for someone unfamiliar with that position.

keymone 5y ago

> Both leaders are deeply committed to all of our employees; to the work ahead to ensure Blizzard is the safest, most welcoming workplace possible for women, and people of any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or background; to upholding and reinforcing our values; and to rebuilding your trust. what a load of bullshit. all that trust was lost when those two were already in leadership positions.

_RPL5_ 5y ago

WoW has been my main game since I was a teenager, and for the past decade it's been lurching up (Legion) and down (WoD), but mostly down (BFA, SL). It seems like Blizzard is out of ideas with WoW. They are like a tired writer who is trying to edit a paragraph trying to make it read better, but ultimately makes it worse with the edits. Health of their games aside, here is to hoping that they at least take care of their employees moving forward. The thing that's most disheartening about the harassment allegations is how many former female employees (50+) came out on twitter to collaborate the claims of run-away toxicity. Not something I expected from a company that positions itself as the "wholesome gaming company of your childhood." Whatever it takes for them to clean up their workplace, they need to do it. The games, too, will be better for it. Workplace toxicity doesn't just lead to harassment, it kills collaboration and creativity.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

ndkwj 5y ago

Some comments here remind me of people who still refuse to buy German cars.

HelloNurse 5y ago

Summary of plausible bad reasons to appoint two "co-leaders" where one would suffice: - Both candidates had such strong claims on the #1 spot, and so much influence, that the company was forced to promote both to avoid losing one of them. Hiring an outsider, like a sensible and earnest company would have done, would have alienated both rather than only one. Is Activision known as a fractious organization? - They really wanted Oneal, but they added Ybarra to avoid looking like they had undergone a feminist coup. Because they care about what their users think of them, and this is what they think of their users. - They really wanted Ybarra, but they added Oneal to give an impression of greater change, just because she is a woman. - Both candidates weren't considered really qualified as a sole "leader", but there was hope that they could handle the crisis together instead. Which implies personal conflicts, poor personnel quality (not necessarily Oneal and Ybarra, of course) or both. Even worse theories would be easy to think of, but since Blizzard executives can be expected to read HN discussions about them speculation about what they are doing would be pointlessly cruel.

peterthehacker 5y ago

Whenever I see a business try “co-leader” stuff I think of that episode of the office where Jim and Michael are promoted to “co-managers”, then Oscar comments, dripping with sarcasm: > Look, it doesn’t take a genius to know that any organization thrives when it has two leaders. Go ahead, name a country that doesn’t have two presidents, a boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be without the popes? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wF8jmFoQ7zM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wF8jmFoQ7zM

seanp2k2 5y ago

I wonder if Townsend will be next https://www.activisionblizzard.com/leadership/frances-townsend https://www.activisionblizzard.com/leadership/frances-townse...