President of Blizzard, J. Allen Brack Stepping Down as Company Faces Controversy and Employee Lawsuit

Today Blizzard, the makes of World of Warcraft and Diablo, announced that president J. Allen Brack will be leaving the company. This comes as Activision Blizzard Inc. is embroiled in an online firestorm stemming from a lawsuit being filed by employees alleging that the company had culture that was overly sexual where many male employees would made inappropriate sexual advances towards female employees.

The Activision Blizzard’s stock price has dropped since the news of this lawsuit, and the company has faced continuous harassment from online communities on social media. Thousands of gamers have boycotted WoW and Overwatch in protest. This is at a time when World of Warcraft is struggling to maintain a user base as competing MMOs like Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn.

While most of the allegations took place before Brack became president in to18, and he is not facing any direct allegations of misconduct, Brack’s leadership of the company has been called into question for this culture existing under his watch. This was recently intensified when old footage from 2010 surfaced of a panel discussion in which Brack jokingly replies to an audience question that claims the designs of female characters in World of Warcraft are overly sexualized.

Stepping in to Replace Brack will be Jen Oneal, and Mike Ybarra as “co-leaders” at this time it is unknown if this arrangement is permanent. The new leadership will have their work cut out for them rebuilding Blizzard’s image among the gaming community.

Originally published at http://gametama.net on August 3, 2021.