Activision Blizzard workers have debuted a brand new game at this year’s Game Developers Conference – Super Anti-Union Campaign Simulator.
READ MORE: What the hell has happened at Activision and why should you care?
According to the Communications Workers of America, Super Anti-Union Campaign Simulator “lets players take on the role of a video game developer who is trying to defeat a corporation that’s suppressing union activity at their company. Sound familiar?”
Super Anti-Union Campaign Simulator allegedly “reflects the struggles of Activision Blizzard employees to win union recognition” and will be accessible soon on CODE-CWA’s website, as part of their ongoing campaign “to win union recognition for game workers employed by Activision Blizzard and Microsoft’s pending acquisition of the game developer”
“We launched this game to reflect the growing worker organising happening within the industry and to address the anti-union measures taken at companies like Activision Blizzard who in the past year has had workers walk out to protest sexual harassment and discrimination,” said CWA.
We launched this game to reflect the growing worker organizing happening within the industry and to address the anti-union measures taken at companies like Activision Blizzard who in the past year has had workers walk out to protest sexual harassment and discrimination. pic.twitter.com/qDLCQsf61x
— CODE-CWA @ GDC (@CODE_CWA) March 23, 2022
Employees at the Raven Software – one of the teams behind Call Of Duty – quality assurance (QA) department started striking in December after mass layoffs from management. In January, it was announced that staff would be unionising before the strike was ended.
Activision Blizzard claims it can’t “voluntarily recognise any labour union…or enter into a collective bargaining agreement” without Microsoft’s consent, following an acquisition earlier this year.
Today (March 25) a Microsoft spokesperson stated that the company will not stand in the way of a recognised union, saying “Microsoft respects Activision Blizzard employees’ right to choose whether to be represented by a labour organisation and we will honour those decisions.”
However, it did not address workers’ concerns about Activision Blizzard’s alleged anti-union campaign.
It comes as today, Activision Blizzard faces fresh allegations of discrimination and sexual harassment in a new lawsuit that also calls for the removal of CEO Bobby Kotick.
The suit, filed at Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of a current Activision Blizzard employee, also sees Activision Blizzard accused of retaliation tactics after “Jane Doe” publicly spoke out about her experiences at the company in December, describing the studio as an “alcohol-soaked culture of sexual harassment.”
Doe claims she applied for an open executive assistant position in November 2021, but that after she spoke at a press conference in December 2021 about the sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation she had endured, her application was rejected.
I represent a Blizzard employee who alleges she's a victim of sexual harassment. Our press release for our press conference tomorrow at the Irvine headquarters where we will demand accountability for the victims who have been subjected to harassment at the video game company: pic.twitter.com/0PisZ1Zomr
— Lisa Bloom (@LisaBloom) December 7, 2021
“For years, Activision Blizzard’s open ‘frat boy’ environment fostered rampant sexism, harassment and discrimination with 700 reported incidents occurring under CEO Robert Kotick’s watch,” reads the lawsuit, which calls for his removal.
In other news, a recent annual report from Activision Blizzard said that recent legal proceedings regarding alleged workplace harassment and strikes over QA layoffs may be responsible for an increased attrition rate at the company, and is also causing difficulty in attracting new staff members.
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