Bobby Kotick has left Activision now (Picture: Getty Images)
A former executive has accused Activision Blizzard and Bobby Kotick of age discrimination in a new lawsuit against the publisher.
Activision is getting sued again, but this time by a former employee who accuses them of discrimination, on account of him being old and white.
The lawsuit was filed last week by a 57-year-old former tech executive who had worked at the company since 2014. He was laid off as part of a restructuring at Activision Blizzard in August last year.
The lawsuit highlights alleged comments made by the company’s former CEO Bobby Kotick, 60, who officially resigned at the end of December. At a leadership conference during his tenure, it’s claimed Kotick said that the ‘problem’ with Activision Blizzard is that ‘there are too many old white guys’.
It’s suggested that following Kotick’s comments, two executives immediately left the company, based ‘at least in part’ on Kotick’s ‘ageist’ remarks.
According to the lawsuit, one of the departing executives recommended the plaintiff as his replacement, but he was overlooked in favour of a younger non-white employee.
A woman in the plaintiff’s department is also alleged to have made defamatory remarks about him to human resources and his manager. Per the lawsuit, the plaintiff is said to have filed his own complaint in response, accusing the company of failing ‘to protect Plaintiff from the discriminatory and defamatory accusations’.
According to the lawsuit, as discovered by Law360, he ‘asked for ‘checks and balances’ and made clear that Plaintiff ‘was the first person to sound an alarm that a larger issue might be brewing.’’
When he was fired as part of Central Tech restructuring within the company in August 2023, the lawsuit claims that, from a team of 200, he and six other men aged 47 or older were sacked.
‘Activision placed profits over people by terminating the older, higher paid executives,’ the lawsuit notes.
The former executive is seeking damages to make up for his loss of earnings, the negative impact it has had on his career, emotional distress, wrongful termination, and legal costs.
GameCentral has reached out to Activision Blizzard for comment.
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Last month, Activision Blizzard announced it had settled a lawsuit from the California’s Civil Rights Department regarding allegations of discrimination against women at the company.
According to the CRD, a settlement agreement of $54 million was reached to resolve the allegations, which would go towards compensating women who were denied promotion opportunities and paid less than men for similar work – among other discrepancies.
Activision Blizzard was originally sued by California over allegations of sexism, harassment and for encouraging a ‘frat boy’ workplace culture in July 2021. This in turn led to wider revelations of toxic workplace conditions, which damaged Activision Blizzard’s share price and ultimately led to Microsoft buying the company.
The company has had an eventful few years (Picture: Microsoft)
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A former executive has accused Activision Blizzard and Bobby Kotick of age discrimination in a new lawsuit against the publisher.