J Allen Brack is stepping (has stepped) down (already) as CEO of Blizzard

[Master Disaster]

Posted on the official Blizzard News Feed a few hours ago. Effective immediately Blizzards current head has stepped down and will be replaced by Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra in a co lead.

Quote

To all members of the Blizzard Community, 

 

We want to let you know about an important leadership change at Blizzard Entertainment. 

 

Starting today, J. Allen Brack will be stepping down as the leader of the studio, and Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will co-lead Blizzard moving forward. 

 

Jen joined Blizzard in January as executive vice president of development, where she’s been providing senior development leadership and support to the Diablo and Overwatch franchises. Jen is the former head of Vicarious Visions (which is now part of Blizzard Entertainment).

 

After many years at XBOX, Mike joined the company in 2019 as the executive vice president and general manager of platform and technology, where he’s been overseeing the evolution of Battle.net and our development services organization.

 

Jen and Mike have more than three decades of gaming industry experience between them. Moving forward, they will share responsibilities over game development and company operations. 

 

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. With their many years of industry experience and deep commitment to integrity and inclusivity, Jen and Mike will lead Blizzard with care, compassion, and a dedication to excellence. You’ll hear more from Jen and Mike soon. 

Here's what Brack had to say

Quote

“I am confident that Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will provide the leadership Blizzard needs to realize its full potential and will accelerate the pace of change. I anticipate they will do so with passion and enthusiasm and that they can be trusted to lead with the highest levels of integrity and commitment to the components of our culture that make Blizzard so special.”

Finally, thank you all for being a part of the Blizzard community, and for your passion and determination for safety and equality for all.

Source - https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/23706475/new-leadership-at-blizzard

 

Looks like that California lawsuit is having an effect, I have to wonder if he knows he's going to be exposed as being neck deep in some pretty bad shit and probably, was pushed out to try and distance the company from the lawsuit.

 

I just wish Bobby Kotick would fuck off as well TBH.

[tkitch]

OHhhhh...  Where's my popcorn, this is gonna be good!  

IMO?  Buh bye.  Don't let the door hitcha where the good lord splitcha!

[Murasaki]

2 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I just wish Bobby Kotick would fuck off as well TBH.

I think we can all solidly agree on that!

[SolarNova]

A death knell if ever there was one.

 

A women with less than a year in the company and a guy who worked for MS with Xbox. At least J was a long serving Blizz guy.

Kinda feel sorry for the guy, he never wanted the job in the 1st place, didnt like doing it, and was left a relative sh*tshow to deal with. Dont get me wrong he had falts and certainly should have done more to get Blizz back on track to producing contented for the gamers..but alas.

 

This stinks of ActiBliz choosing their sacrifice to the woke brigade, both online and the California courts.

 

Tis a shame, this court case had the chance to make real change within ActiBliz to give the devs a better work life, less crunch, more say in matters etc. Instead its been co-opted by the usual obnoxious loud minority, even the walkout was ruined.

To cap it off its even been pushed further into the games, WoW is being 'censored' due to this with certain contents being removed, even things as absurd as the /spit emote ..(though thats more to do with how it was used to shame MTX purchasers in TBC....which makes ActiBliz money)..the rest is to do with the accusations.

 

Its sad to see, but for me at least, it has little effect, i dont play ActiBliz games much anymore, i jump back to D3 every now and then, and am keeping an eye on D2R and D4 ..but i dont have high hopes, and havnt played WoW since maybe a coupel months into Cata, even in WotLK i was on and off towards the end.

[tkitch]

19 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

A women with less than a year in the company and a guy who worked for MS with Xbox. At least J was a long serving Blizz guy.

Kinda feel sorry for the guy, he never wanted the job in the 1st place, didnt like doing it, and was left a relative sh*tshow to deal with.

 

So, because she was new to the company she's worth less than someone who has been around for years, and apparently hasn't done anything to fix potentially widespread issues at the company?

 

[Vanderburg]

1 minute ago, tkitch said:

 

So, because she was new to the company she's worth less than someone who has been around for years, and apparently hasn't done anything to fix potentially widespread issues at the company?

 

Yes

[SolarNova]

7 minutes ago, tkitch said:

 

So, because she was new to the company she's worth less than someone who has been around for years, and apparently hasn't done anything to fix potentially widespread issues at the company?

 

 

6 minutes ago, Vanderburg said:

Yes

I actually mentioned 2 people  ..but hey, pick on one of them for no reason (ofc theres a reason , I wonder what it could possibly be ).

 

if ur going to fish for an argument, at least try to be subtle about it.

[Lurick]

33 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

This stinks of ActiBliz choosing their sacrifice to the woke brigade, both online and the California courts.

Ah yes, legal proceedings against a company and individuals for sexual assault that even resulted in someone taking their own life is such a "woke" thing to be upset about right? We should just ignore things "in the past" and "move on" and not worry about bringing justice because "woke people" will win right?

[Vanderburg]

11 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

(ofc theres a reason , I wonder what it could possibly be )

Oh, do tell what insight my sarcastic one word response has revealed to you.

[tkitch]

12 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

I actually mentioned 2 people  ..but hey, pick on one of them for no reason (ofc theres a reason , I wonder what it could possibly be ).

 

if ur going to fish for an argument, at least try to be subtle about it.

You did single her out for being new, just saying.  And if Activision/Blizzard thought that she had the chops to stay on as an Executive when they purchased VV, then I suspect that she has the chops to run the company, too.

 

You mentioned Mike's previous Employment with MS as if it makes it better than her previous employment with VV, even though Acti/Bliz thought VV was good enough to buy.  

 

Was I trying to be subtle?  No.  I was being outright direct.

[Master Delta Chief]

IT/gaming culture is just toxic asf and just horrible. The fact that we got so many people still out there harassing others in all sorts of ways for whatever 'reason' within the industry, shows there's work to be done. Whoever takes charge of Blizzard might be able to improve things for the victims, though it's likely going to be minimal. This is a widespread issue that I hope one day will be resolved. 

 

Also the Head of HR left as well as of today.  

 

1 hour ago, SolarNova said:

-snip-

All I'm going to say is, with that kind of reply you posted, you're pretty much part of the problem that many are trying to address. 

[IkeaGnome]

11 minutes ago, Master Delta Chief said:

IT/gaming culture is just toxic asf and just horrible. The fact that we got so many people still out there harassing others in all sorts of ways for whatever 'reason' within the industry, shows there's work to be done. Whoever takes charge of Blizzard might be able to improve things for the victims, though it's likely going to be minimal. This is a widespread issue that I hope one day will be resolved. 

It's a sad day when industries that people go into because they WANT to are literally less toxic than mining.

[Forbidden Wafer]

1 hour ago, SolarNova said:

A women with less than a year in the company and a guy who worked for MS with Xbox. At least J was a long serving Blizz guy.

While I do agree that letting non-blizz people take control would destroy the company in the past, old Blizz is long gone. Their games have consistently getting worse and worse. Not sure on the MSFT guy, but the Vicarious Visions lady seems fine. At least VV treated their franchises with some respect and listened to fans (Crash trilogy remaster, Tony Hawk remaster, Diablo 2 remaster).

Just reminding that Activision pretty much fired Team 1 (Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo) and shoehorned VV in its place.

[crystal6tak]

15 hours ago, Lurick said:

Ah yes, legal proceedings against a company and individuals for sexual assault that even resulted in someone taking their own life is such a "woke" thing to be upset about right? We should just ignore things "in the past" and "move on" and not worry about bringing justice because "woke people" will win right?

I just hope the new leaders are actually qualified to lead a game studio. I'm all for them improving their workplace environment, but shouldn't that just involve hiring better HR managers? Hire a woke person all you want, just don't place them in a position they're unqualified for.

 

14 hours ago, Forbidden Wafer said:

While I do agree that letting non-blizz people take control would destroy the company in the past, old Blizz is long gone. Their games have consistently getting worse and worse. Not sure on the MSFT guy, but the Vicarious Visions lady seems fine. At least VV treated their franchises with some respect and listened to fans (Crash trilogy remaster, Tony Hawk remaster, Diablo 2 remaster).

Just reminding that Activision pretty much fired Team 1 (Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo) and shoehorned VV in its place.

Any idea what happened to Team 1? Have they started their own studio or something like that?

[Beerzerker]

I'll quote what I last posted in the related thread to this:

"That's why I was saying all along myself you can take your own life experience (If you have it with such things) and reasonably predict or guess the basics with a few details too.
I can also assure you someone is looking for a way for this to pay, with others playing the CYA game since "Booger Sugar" is involved. 
Gonna be alot of fencing, jockying for position, deal making and other things we'll never know about before this one is done."

 

In reference to hearing from Jen and Mike, what's said will be an indication of the deal(s) made to try and smooth all this out.

The suit caused at least one head to roll and I can promise alot of $$ is on the line here.
Anytime an exec gets sacked there will be a payout of some kind, what matters now is will it be a voluntary payout to settle it out of court (The cheap and easy way) or be ordered by a judge (The hard and potentially expensive way) with appeals that go on forever.
There may be a chance they could actually win and have to pay nothing, but with the head-rolling having taken place it doesn't look good at all for them.

 

I'd also bet at least a few more heads, most likely lower ranking ones will roll too because it's the blame-game and everybody is playing whether they want to or not.
We'll probrably hear about folks getting shuffled around again but remember for a position to be filled it must either be created or vacant first. One goes out, another lands in the spot.
As for the one that held the spot before, they may move them into the basement or out the door - It all depends.

 

And don't think I haven't noticed the term "Co-Lead";
That normally means a real head-hunting expedition is underway and all around the office building is their hunting ground.

Not enough trust ATM to leave all the authority in one set of hands but more than enough blame to go around.
That's usually how it stacks up.

 

[Avocado Diaboli]

41 minutes ago, crystal6tak said:

I'm all for them improving their workplace environment, but shouldn't that just involve hiring better HR managers?

People tend to have a fundamental misconception of what the point of HR is. It's not supposed to be an internal place to go to bring up and clear problems like this. HR's role in a company has and will always be to shield the company from legal troubles concerning its employees. The last people you should seek out whenever you have a problem like sexual harassment or abuse is HR, because most of the time this will unfortunately have negative consequences for you. They aren't your friends, even though they like to pretend they are. Stuff like this is better solved by finally unionizing the games industry to actually put pressure on corporations to implement proper codes of conduct and guidelines about the procedures that take place if something like this happens.

[Dujith]

3 minutes ago, Nacht said:

He kinda stepped in at worst time tbh.

He was at Blizzard from the start and part of the problem, while he became president in 2018 he was vice president in 2014 and before that he led the WoW team. So he did not "step into" this.

[Beerzerker]

43 minutes ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

People tend to have a fundamental misconception of what the point of HR is. It's not supposed to be an internal place to go to bring up and clear problems like this. HR's role in a company has and will always be to shield the company from legal troubles concerning its employees. The last people you should seek out whenever you have a problem like sexual harassment or abuse is HR, because most of the time this will unfortunately have negative consequences for you. They aren't your friends, even though they like to pretend they are. Stuff like this is better solved by finally unionizing the games industry to actually put pressure on corporations to implement proper codes of conduct and guidelines about the procedures that take place if something like this happens.

THIS.

I've seen it and even had to deal with it before myself.
HR is nothing more than the company's first line of legal defense, they are there to detect and report any possible legal issues to corporate so their lawyers can "Look into it" and come up with a way to legally get around whatever is going on. With anything of a potentially serious legal nature, the HR department will always contact corporate for them to "Advise" HR personel on what to do and how to do it and it's always done on a case-by-case basis.
And they will also keep corporate updated as required.

Of course they have to play by whatever laws/rules are in place pertaining to things like an employee's rights and so on but in the end that's what they really are.

If you ever have an issue with a company and want to seek legal action, HR is NOT the place to go. 
Always speak to a lawyer first and go from there based on what they advise.

[crystal6tak]

1 hour ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

People tend to have a fundamental misconception of what the point of HR is. It's not supposed to be an internal place to go to bring up and clear problems like this. HR's role in a company has and will always be to shield the company from legal troubles concerning its employees. The last people you should seek out whenever you have a problem like sexual harassment or abuse is HR, because most of the time this will unfortunately have negative consequences for you. They aren't your friends, even though they like to pretend they are. Stuff like this is better solved by finally unionizing the games industry to actually put pressure on corporations to implement proper codes of conduct and guidelines about the procedures that take place if something like this happens.

Interesting, given what you said, would having a "woke" leader even help then? From what I understand most leaders (as employers) are against unionizing regardless of reason. Mostly it's the employees who have to step up for unionization. (I have zero office experience, everything I know is from reading off the internet)

[Doobeedoo]

Quite a mess is happening, also can't see this surprises me too much at all. They're trying to deal with a situation in every way, anything that it shows they're working on the case immediately. Definitely sucks for so many devs that work there and can't also just 'get another job' just like that and are also good devs.

This definitely left a big stain on the Blizzard name and we can only wait and see how it goes from here.

[Avocado Diaboli]

16 minutes ago, crystal6tak said:

Interesting, given what you said, would having a "woke" leader even help then? From what I understand most leaders (as employers) are against unionizing regardless of reason. Mostly it's the employees who have to step up for unionization. (I have zero office experience, everything I know is from reading off the internet)

In theory, it can help. But in practice, most CEOs of publicly traded companies get appointed by a board of directors that consists of the biggest shareholders of the company. They basically dictate the goals the company intends to achieve for its shareholders that the CEO has to fulfill. The typical motive of shareholders is to increase the value of the company and to rake in as much profit as possible, because dividends and high share prices are the only way an investor makes money off of their investment. The actual service or product of the corporation is largely unimportant to most investors, they'll invest in whatever guarantees the biggest returns. There aren't many investors who think along the lines of Linus when he was musing about investing in Framework because he believes in their mission, most are in it for the cash, not for ideological reasons and many aren't above abusing the system if they think they can make a bunch of money off of it (think back to the GameStop and AMC stock fiasco where hedge funds attempted a pump and dump scheme that backfired and would've caused those companies to go bankrupt and destroy jobs in the process).

 

One way to make a corporation more profitable is by keeping wages low, because those typically account for the majority of expenses of any given company. And the aim of unions is to increase wages, among other things. So you can see the inherent conflict between someone tasked with keeping costs down to increase profits to be paid out to investors (never mind themselves as bonuses) and a union aiming to improve wages for everyone so that profits get spread evenly among everybody who's worked to actually generate them. So even the most lenient CEO would always denounce unionization, because it inherently weakens their position and gets in the way of their goals. It's an unfortunate fact of life that the employer-employee relationship is inherently adversarial to a certain extent.

[Brooksie359]

2 hours ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

People tend to have a fundamental misconception of what the point of HR is. It's not supposed to be an internal place to go to bring up and clear problems like this. HR's role in a company has and will always be to shield the company from legal troubles concerning its employees. The last people you should seek out whenever you have a problem like sexual harassment or abuse is HR, because most of the time this will unfortunately have negative consequences for you. They aren't your friends, even though they like to pretend they are. Stuff like this is better solved by finally unionizing the games industry to actually put pressure on corporations to implement proper codes of conduct and guidelines about the procedures that take place if something like this happens.

Had an hr person that wasn't actually an HR person with a degree in it. One of the nicest person I have met and was always super helpful. Later she was replaced by a different HR person who was like talking to a lawyer that was always trying to make sure the company comes first. She was actually kinda just a mean person. I have found that most HR people are like that while a there are very few that are actually nice and sorta on your side. I honestly found that I would be better off going to a higher up that I trust with a problem than HR. 

[Brooksie359]

2 hours ago, crystal6tak said:

I just hope the new leaders are actually qualified to lead a game studio. I'm all for them improving their workplace environment, but shouldn't that just involve hiring better HR managers? Hire a woke person all you want, just don't place them in a position they're unqualified for.

 

Any idea what happened to Team 1? Have they started their own studio or something like that?

Just because they want to hire someone who doesn't accept blatant sexual harassment in the workplace doesn't make them woke. That makes them a decent person. They just need to get rid of the people that allowed all of this to happened unchecked. You fix the workplace and the workers will likely do better work as they don't have to worry about anything but making good games. 

[tkitch]

7 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Just because they want to hire someone who doesn't accept blatant sexual harassment in the workplace doesn't make them woke. That makes them a decent person. They just need to get rid of the people that allowed all of this to happened unchecked. You fix the workplace and the workers will likely do better work as they don't have to worry about anything but making good games. 

It's almost like Employees that are happy and like where they work do better jobs there, or something.  WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?!

[Kisai]

2 hours ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

People tend to have a fundamental misconception of what the point of HR is. It's not supposed to be an internal place to go to bring up and clear problems like this. 

Errr. no.

 

HR is "Human Resources" not "Hire and Retain", in most businesses they are a department that does the first round of interviews, and does all the paperwork and possibly financial/legal checks on a potential hire before they are ever let in the door. If people are coming to HR to complain, your HR department did none of that.

 

As for the problem of sexual harassment in the work place. I'll just be blunt about it, and some of it will always be a lie. Office drama is often intended to either get someone fired, or get someone so embarrassed and humiliated to voluntarily quit. I had two office jobs in the past that the "office drama" had a pattern of being fabricated and then someone mysteriously never showing up again, and wouldn't you know it, always the same person being involved in resolving it. 

 

What I heard from the Blizzard stuff is that this wasn't just office rumor-mill/unwarranted-claim type of nonsense, but actually encouraged, out-in-the-open, photographic proof type of situations that nobody ever tried to put their foot down. A literal "don't rock the boat" situation where if you stand up, you take everyone with you.

 

The other problem here, is that gaming companies really need to be unionized. If crunchtime was the cracks in the foundation, this kind of stuff is the wrecking ball.