PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan has reportedly thrown some shade at Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s recent response to allegations that he knew about his company’s toxic culture, didn’t do anything about it, and even contributed to it.
PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan, according to an article published by Bloomberg, has some choice words for embattled Activision CEO Bobby Kotick over his handling of the Activision Blizzard workplace scandal.
And considering the two video game giants’ close business relationship (Call of Duty does mighty well on PlayStation consoles), it seems unlikely they will be ignored or go entirely unnoticed.
In an email to the employees of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jim Ryan is said to have criticised Activision and its leadership for the behaviour and culture that is outlined in the explosive Wall Street Journal article that went live yesterday.
Ryan remarked that he was “disheartened and frankly stunned to read” the report, and that the figures at the top of Activision have “not done enough to address a deep-seated culture of discrimination and harassment.”
He went on to assure those who were concerned by his company’s close relationship with Activision that “we outreached to Activision immediately after the article was published to express our deep concern and to ask how they plan to address the claims made in the article… We do not believe their statements of response properly address the situation.”
The response that Jim Ryan is referring to appears to be the official statement that Bobby Kotick released yesterday, which aimed to deflect the article’s allegations and paint the picture of a company that was coming together. Frankly, it came across as tone deaf, and failed to properly acknowledge the reality of the situation.
Ryan literally ended his response thanking his employees for “maintaining the very best environment for all of us to work”, which considering that said employees had just staged a walkout to protest those very conditions, and the response to them, is laughable.
Hopefully Jim Ryan goes public with his concerns, and that this action puts sufficient pressure on Activision Blizzard to make some real changes.
