Obligatory reminder that as much as dumping on Bobby Kotick has become the thing we all do whenever this company comes up, it is equally important to name the other top executives past and present, most of whom oversaw the very same abuse: Brian Kelly, Chairman of Activision since 2013, co-Chairman from 1998, Director since 1995, President from 95-98 and COO from 95-98; Daniel Alegre, President and COO of Activision Blizzard King since 2020, who legged it from Google after sixteen years after a variety of allegations there; Dennis Durkin, now left in the middle of all the allegations, was CFO from 2012-2021 and previously Microsoft Corporate Vice President, CFO and COO; and his replacement, Armin Zerza, CCO since 2015 and now CFO since 2021. Then there are all the second-tier executives, managers and producers, many of whom have run away to conveniently be forgotten about, including (but not limited to) Jesse Meschuk, Robert Bridenbecker, Lydia Bottegoni, John Salera, Jeff Chamberlain, Chacko Sonny, John Hight, Mike Ybarra, Vik Saraf, Jennifer Lew, Rod Fergusson, and not forgetting Jeff Kaplan, who was a director and later Vice President at Blizzard from 2002, 'surprisingly' quit the company a couple of months before all the allegations came out, and very suspiciously hasn't been heard from since. It's vital that Bobby Kotick does not get to become the scapegoat taking all the heat while the rest of them keep their heads down and carry on like nothing's happened. Bobby's the one with the Coca-Cola job, he's fine with taking the blame for everything. He's been checked out of ABK for years. He takes all the heat, he leaves, he's still got his 'main' job at Coke and his pals at ABK keep their jobs unscathed? Nah, not on my watch.
"There is no evidence to suggest that Activision Blizzard senior executives ever intentionally ignored or attempted to downplay instances of gender harassment that occured and were reported." said Activision, ignoring and attempting to downplay gender harrassment that occurred and was reported with that very sentence.
The funniest/saddest thing is that there is evidence that Bobby Kotick intentionally ignored instances of gender harassment that occurred and were reported. We knew that before the investigation took place.
We did not downplay instances of gender harassment... except in nearly every press release in the last year, or our deal with the Federal Government, or our attacks on the California government, or our attempts to halt unionisation by downplaying any and all issues the company has had. We didn't downplay our distressed situation (which included the harassment)... except to leverage a deal with Microsoft, or to lie to our shareholders to secure their vote on the deal, or lie to regulators overseeing this deal.
@@boxhead6177 Wasn't Microsoft about to renege on the deal until, conveniently, Activision Blizzard's investigation results were made public? I wonder what the ESG rating for the company looks like.
@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 Microsoft is buying a distressed company lock stock and fat cat barrell, they have to pretend Activision's "bulldust" smells like "roses", its all corporate showmanship to make it look like the deal is challenging, when its already done.
Sadly, I bet their are corpo bootlickers who will unironically trot out this report as evidence of Activision doing no wrong. At least their tanking their own products now so alot of people are less likely to just buy their shit now.
Judge "Sounds good, now if you don't mind entering all the supporting evidence found in the investigation for that statement into Discovery..." Activision-Blizzard "Wait, you mean that statement isn't enough?"
This could revolutionize criminal justice. Just imagine instead of putting so much time and money into trying to prosecute people charged with a crime. We could just ask the accused to conduct an investigation on themself, as they are in the best position to determine e if they really did the crime or not.
Oh yeah I'm a trillionaire now. On a completely unrelated note, I did *not* rob *or* hack several hundred banks all around the globe, and neither did I burgle millions of houses.
Imagine a killer being on trial with evidence against him. "your honor I investigated the site where the bodies were dumped and found they died of natural deaths! craziest thing they all just fell into holes in my backyard and died of natural asphyxiation! I am not guilty because I checked myself!"
Activision-Blizzard is the epitome of contemporary capitalism. Finding a rapidly growing and loosely regulated market to feed on gambling addictions and, hey, if you get to harass workers at the same time - the more power to you. Literally crushing whatever hope there was left for gamers that grew up on Warcraft 2 and Diablo 1, because monetization. I've never, ever, forever, hated a company SO MUCH.
Show how capitalist reenforces sexism, misogyny, racism, and bigotry and as we seen form Disney anti-LGBTQA for profit or the people behind want to enforce it and have power to do so and they don't want anyone to take that away form them
The state and countries these developers are based also need to step up. The US especially has pretty fucking shocking labour laws, and by shocking I mean they don't really exist. They won't change though because those with the power to do that also benefit from it, just like all these tax holes are left open all over the world. They'll march up some big company who's using the loopholes in front of Congress during election season to score some season points and ignore the bit where it's them who have the power to change these things, but won't, instead they'll just blame the company for doing what they're legally allowed to do.
@@TalesOfWar US with unchecked neoliberal capitalism really dealt itself a bad hand. Big Tech is another example, with Mark Z. or Pichai frequently losing memory when it comes to exploitation of workforce or their consumers. When it comes to video games, I feel like the lack of regulations is a big problem. Poland labor laws are entirely different from US, yet CDPR grinded their employees through crunch that would make Bethesda proud. And capitalism a problem also, so we have a complex issue that Kotick is shamelessly profiting from.
You ever see a headline and think "JSS is going to have a delicious field day with this"? Yeah, this was one of those times. That was some absolutely spectacular sarcasm
@@mattwo7 ik I'm playing devil's advocate kinder eggs are dirt cheap, you get both chocolate and little physical toy inside, and you can buy a couple or more, yes it's like gambling, tho at least you got a snack and a toy With lootboxes, you don't know what's in there, it cost more money for 1, and you basically can't touch or transfer to another game
@@jarotheboar8398 "kinder eggs are dirt cheap" You uh.. Do know why micro-transactions became a thing right? Individual lootboxs rolls are usually "dirt cheap."
@@mattwo7 you should see Apex Legends Microtransactions, $7 for 1 lootbox, and mobile games aside, games are basically a full price entrance for a casino, like EA games, Ubisoft, Activision, 2K, etc.
@@mattwo7 In the broadest possible sense, yes Kinder Surprise eggs are a gamble. They're also candy and don't have rarities, at most they're stinging you for money by showing separate toys interacting in the little diagrams. Hatchimals are way more lootbox-like should've just picked those.
Meanwhile in this same week Blizzard had it's "Overwatch 2 reveal event" where the main reveal was that they're adding in a cash shop and battlepass, the same freemium bullshit that ruined every other shooter in the past half decade
And I bet they’ll purposely be raking the games meta data to craft the most deviously planned battle passes to encourage people to spend or grind through it , they won’t care if ya got a fav they’ll purposely put more popular characters deeper in the pass for skins probably I doubt they’ll do any system of like “you reached level 20 here pick any purple rarity skin” nah it’ll be set skins I imagine
@@ultimamage3 what do you mean. It's launching with 3 new heroes (the same amount the game used to get in 1 year of free updates), it's practically a new game
Also in the news: "I didn't do the crime!" - Said almost every criminal ever. Fuck Activision! Since they bought Blizzard they haven't put out anything decent. I played almost all Diablo Starcraft and Warcraft games and it really saddens me to see what they've become.
Here we fucking go again with Activision Blizzard. God I fucking hate that company. Hold up, didn't Activision Blizzard EXPLICITLY confirm a story in which Bobby Kotick threatened to kill a worker on the phone, only to say that he was 'deeply sorry' for it?
He didn't say it, and if he did he didn't mean it, and if he did, you don't understand the context, and if you do, it wasn't bad, and if it is, it could've been worse.
"There isn't and there never was any abuse at Blizzard. Just as there is no war in Ba Sing Se and just as nothing ever happened on Tiananmen Square. All people who say otherwise are dirty liars and will be abused. There is no abuse in Blizzard Sing Se!"
@@kritizismmusics9737 May as well give up and go home at this point then. It's not like corporations are going to take notice of criticism about anything when they can conduct their own enquiries to make their own conclusions.
I swear, these corporate fools aren't even trying any more. They just lie on the tracks and wait for the Sterling engine to run them through now. And it's no less than what they deserve either!
"It was good that we stood around while kids got murdered in a school it's why we need more funding so more heavily armed people can stand around. It's also good that our story keeps changing everytime more evidence keeps proving our account wrong. If you disagree you're a copcist (cop racist)."
11:21 "And I've already been yelled at from a speeding car today already. So I might just run home and hide." Damn now I'm sad, Sorry Steph :(. Great video, also awful that this kind of farce is still on going. If you wrote some of this stuff into a movie it would be rejected for being ridiculous. I also appreciate little bits that are easy to forget, like saying "All the games are made in a small basement in Holland" just shows how ridiculous the systems that are in place are, when that quite clearly couldn't be true, but it is cos "Tax purposes". I hate it.
TBH where a bisness is located shouldn't matter for tax purposes, should just do it based on sales. If you sell $X worth of stuff in a country, you pay a percentage of that in cooperate taxes. Think that is what Europe was trying to do to Google, Amazon, and some other big teck companies a few years back but the US through such a fit about it they backed off.
Much support here for the Jimqusition taking on a found footage style. Who wasn’t shaken to the core when Steph was attacked by thistles. And the spooks only escalated as the video continues.
@@Sir_Catnip my friend, please respect the wishes of the person who's made the video and call them by the name they prefer. I don't care if you don't believe that trans people exist, but you can say their name correctly. Also when you've learnt basic respect you can go read a few studies on gender and see that yes, Trans-people are absolutely valid and do exist
"There simply is no room at Activision Blizzard for anyone who does not practice our corporate value of providing a safe, inclusive and welcoming workplace that serves as a model for our industry." Hold on Steph, that part's true - they've already got so many of those people on the executive payroll they've actually had to let some of them go. No room for fresh sex pest hires here!
He looks like a sewer dwelling Goblin that a fairy god mother cast a spell to make human, but she wasn't very good at magic so he's still a greedy, disgusting, filth dwelling creature.
The shitty part is, I knew this was coming due to an Investor vote a couple months ago. Due to my Public app, I own a super tiny sliver of Activision-Blizzard so I could vote. One of the questions was (paraphrased) "Move to deny allegations". I don't remember the wording but did screencap it just for a lark as I KNEW ActiBliz would try shit like this.
What's been eating at me recently is how several people I know suddenly stopped caring about all the ActiBlizz drama just because they're now owned by Microsoft.
It's like when Nestle "sold off" their bottled water brands in NA. No small number of people started acting like that changed anything, but they'd just spun that department off; it was still the same people calling the shots as had been previously (and where either at the helm or in senior positions for most of the shit they've pulled). ActiBlizz still has 90%+ the same senior leadership they had before MSoft bought them. We shouldn't assume they've changed their stripes until they prove it (and they certainly seem to be doing the opposite of that).
@@scottthewaterwarrior Exactly. Another thing that gets me is how they're making these claims after firing a bunch of those involved in said drama (McCree anyone?) like we haven't been paying attention over the past two plus years. I'll buy their OS when I absolutely have to after a few years when I need to hop rigs, but MS has never been anywhere close to being a company I like, that's purely because I dislike Apple more and my dumb ass wouldn't even know the first thing about setting up Linux. Otherwise, I'm not inclined to throw favour at the company that normalized paying for online gaming on consoles while shafting their PC userbase with their consoles' exclusive lineups. Sod 'em.
Activision: "Apologise sincerely and launch a genuine investigation into serial harrassers and fire them, or deny any fault? Deny all fault, of course!"
When I heard this story, I didn't buy it for one damn second. This "investigation" is about as valid as any from a police department anytime an officer shoots someone because the "feared for their life." I hope the lawsuits drag all their disgusting behavior kicking and screaming into the light for all to see.
@@Sir_Catnip Your parents must be really proud of you, how you valiantly try to be a useless bigot on the internet for a small token of appreciation from strangers that you never got at home.
@@Sir_Catnip They literally changed their middle name to Stephanie, and they've not corrected anyone themselves for the use of it that I've seen. They tweeted THEMSELVES that it is one of the names they will accept. You are both wrong and out of your lane.
I laughed my ass off when I found out that Activision's personal investigation revealed they're innocent. But seriously this is no laughing matter and someone else should do the investigation next.
"We did nothing wrong right this second. Yes, historically we may have done something wrong. But right now, right this second, nothing is wrong. So stop saying we're doing something wrong right now." Activision Blizzard probably
And even that is a lie. The very existence of billionaires is inherently unethical, and perpetuating that by providing them with yet more income and bonuses is a thing ABK does wrong continuously, every second of every day, until they stop.
The minute I read that absolute bullsh!t statement from activision, I was waiting for your reply. I knew if anyone could pick this apart down to the bone, it would be you. Another absolute banger of a video, Steph.
@@Sir_Catnip this is at least the third time I’ve seen you with this same comment. People have explained that they except Steph so dude just stop. You’re not helpful. You’re being a pebble in a shoe. Annoying.
Dan at Nerdcubed mentioned this over the weekend and I immediately knew what your next video was going to be about. It just shows how scummy and disgusting Activision Blizzard are that they consider all these issues as 'doing nothing wrong'. Is it so prevalent within their company that it's completely normalised and considered not wrong? Yes it is and we know it is because they are telling us it is.
"we did nothing wrong!" "you've already been convicted, there's literally hard evidence" "yeah uh... you see, this proves that truth itself is subjective, and sometimes contradictory. Yup. That's got to be it. Final answer!"
That first shot was like the intro of one of those found-footage horror movies. The Blair Witch Project but the villain abuses workers instead of killing university students.
Couldn't even be bothered to use a third party investigation to give the look of at least being unbiased.. Is this for the stock owners? Do they think this will work on them?
Fucking wow. Does every HR department and manager read the same book on brushing credible allegations aside? Someone I am very close with has experienced this exact same treatment after reporting an extremely hostile work environment. They were told "they are just one person, we're not changing anything because of one person's complaint, you waited too long, it's time to move on, etc". In fact the only "investigation" that occurred was trying to get my friend fired for reporting the hostility of a favored employee. Ass covering and favoritism is rampant at the upper levels of every company.
Activition: Evidence? That's not how our Cort system works. Everyone else: Well then how does it work? Activition: Simple. First you say what happened, then I say what happened, and then I decided who's right. That's why it's called justice, because it's just us. Mah ha ha ha.
This has convinced me. I'm about to spend 10000 dollars in the new diablo game to get all the things right now, I happen to have a spare 10000 dollars on me just lying around. Definitely the most enjoyable game, very fair.
We've investigated ourselves and found ourselves guilty of no wrongdoings. It's nice to know Bobbers Kotick learned how to run a corporation from the U.S police.
Hmm, I'm still unsure about this. Activision should launch an investigation of its investigation to make sure it was conducted fairly and properly, just to be safe
FINALLY! I can now go pre-order Overwatch 1.5, safe in the knowledge that the Activision Blizzard and their worm overlord Bobby Kotick are innocent and did nothing at all wrong. Thank you Activision Blizzard for clearing Activision Blizzard's name.
"There is no evidence to suggest" hits different. It's not that it didn't happen. It's that they checked, and their confident they can get away with it
My main hope is that when Microsoft take ownership that they 1. Do not pretend nothing is wrong there. And 2. Step up and fix, or at least try to fix, the issues there.
phew, thank god. I was a little worried about the state of the gaming industry, but according to the gaming industry everything is fine. If only more nice people like Bobby would run the world, everything would be great. I'm going back to trying to sell my car so I can afford a small chance of getting a 5/5 star gem in Diablo immortal.
Great video! Sorry to hear you are getting dirty looks and people shouting though. Keeping my fingers crossed for the day the Commander graces my city with their presence! Thank God for you, Steph.
Just when you thought capitalization and corporatization of justice system in US can't be real, there comes out AB with yet another proof that it is. Any other normal country would long ago see to millions of dollars in reparations for the victims, but on in the corporate US where DFEH going after abusers is "negatively impacting business opportunities and jobs" (as if AB firing hundreds of employees at once was securing their jobs, ffs). I'm genuinely scared of US while at the same time happy I don't live there. It's mind boggling!
Time to find a pillow to scream into, and a worthless table to kick in clear two pieces. Argh! I have no words for my hate to Bobby, or the company that has shattered my fucking childhood memories.
Damn. I've thought this before, but seriously, your hair and makeup is always on point. Full marks. As for Blizzard, this is just a sign of how low the bar has gotten in the gaming industry, and will show all the other companies exactly how much they can get away with, from now on. It'll also be a beacon to all the up-and-coming creeps of which industry to go into, for free access to female coworkers who can't do anything about their harassment, or risk being blacklisted. (Now that Hollywood and kids' television aren't open secrets anymore.)
Meanwhile, Devil Kotick has entirely redeemed himself and he is no longer an utter scourge and a virulent plague on the gaming industry. Happy endings everywhere! When Hell freezes over.
How would they not expect this to come across as absolute bullshit? I mean they might look at the overall picture of how they aren't ever going to fix their publicity issues and just say "fuck it, they won't believe anything so might as well say the most positive thing we can" but it just continues to kick the can down the road.
@@SCh1m3ra Just because I'm willing to give them a change doesn't mean I expect them to succeed. I been Blacklisting EA since 2010, they haven't yet to redeem themselves even ones.
@@obitosenju3768 I mean, we don't even need to imagine this, if you look at serial killer John Christie, the guy was a former cop who the police brought in to testify against the husband of the neighbour he killed, confirming the poor guy was definitely, absolutely the murderer.
Any comment on UA-cam protecting Quantum TV harassing the LGBT community? He is on record as wishing more "of them" died in the Pulse Nightclub massacre and UA-cam have been shutting down anyone calling him out.
The worst thing out of this disaster is that the people who did the “investigation” gave themselves a raise afterwards. Absolutely disgusting.
Well, in their defense, it takes a LOT of effort to ignore how guilty Activision is
a raise of about 2 inches.
wow, a group of people that are guilty but say they are innocent AND they got away with it while also being paid? sounds kind of familiar
They full on bribed themselves.
Of course they don't want to face consciousness for their actionsl
Obligatory reminder that as much as dumping on Bobby Kotick has become the thing we all do whenever this company comes up, it is equally important to name the other top executives past and present, most of whom oversaw the very same abuse: Brian Kelly, Chairman of Activision since 2013, co-Chairman from 1998, Director since 1995, President from 95-98 and COO from 95-98; Daniel Alegre, President and COO of Activision Blizzard King since 2020, who legged it from Google after sixteen years after a variety of allegations there; Dennis Durkin, now left in the middle of all the allegations, was CFO from 2012-2021 and previously Microsoft Corporate Vice President, CFO and COO; and his replacement, Armin Zerza, CCO since 2015 and now CFO since 2021. Then there are all the second-tier executives, managers and producers, many of whom have run away to conveniently be forgotten about, including (but not limited to) Jesse Meschuk, Robert Bridenbecker, Lydia Bottegoni, John Salera, Jeff Chamberlain, Chacko Sonny, John Hight, Mike Ybarra, Vik Saraf, Jennifer Lew, Rod Fergusson, and not forgetting Jeff Kaplan, who was a director and later Vice President at Blizzard from 2002, 'surprisingly' quit the company a couple of months before all the allegations came out, and very suspiciously hasn't been heard from since.
It's vital that Bobby Kotick does not get to become the scapegoat taking all the heat while the rest of them keep their heads down and carry on like nothing's happened. Bobby's the one with the Coca-Cola job, he's fine with taking the blame for everything. He's been checked out of ABK for years. He takes all the heat, he leaves, he's still got his 'main' job at Coke and his pals at ABK keep their jobs unscathed? Nah, not on my watch.
Boost
Boost!
Boost!!
Booost!!!
Well said.
"There is no evidence to suggest that Activision Blizzard senior executives ever intentionally ignored or attempted to downplay instances of gender harassment that occured and were reported." said Activision, ignoring and attempting to downplay gender harrassment that occurred and was reported with that very sentence.
The funniest/saddest thing is that there is evidence that Bobby Kotick intentionally ignored instances of gender harassment that occurred and were reported. We knew that before the investigation took place.
We did not downplay instances of gender harassment... except in nearly every press release in the last year, or our deal with the Federal Government, or our attacks on the California government, or our attempts to halt unionisation by downplaying any and all issues the company has had.
We didn't downplay our distressed situation (which included the harassment)... except to leverage a deal with Microsoft, or to lie to our shareholders to secure their vote on the deal, or lie to regulators overseeing this deal.
@@boxhead6177 So you did absolutely nothing wrong, I see. Excellent. Take my money.
@@boxhead6177 Wasn't Microsoft about to renege on the deal until, conveniently, Activision Blizzard's investigation results were made public?
I wonder what the ESG rating for the company looks like.
@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 Microsoft is buying a distressed company lock stock and fat cat barrell, they have to pretend Activision's "bulldust" smells like "roses", its all corporate showmanship to make it look like the deal is challenging, when its already done.
“Judge, I have looked into the crimes I have been accused of and according to my own investigation, I am innocent”
Sounds reasonable to me
Sadly, I bet their are corpo bootlickers who will unironically trot out this report as evidence of Activision doing no wrong. At least their tanking their own products now so alot of people are less likely to just buy their shit now.
This is how it actually works when you’re rich or powerful tho
That's how police departments do it.
Your avatar is what sells this comment. That is the look of everyone else in the room including the judge
Judge "Sounds good, now if you don't mind entering all the supporting evidence found in the investigation for that statement into Discovery..." Activision-Blizzard "Wait, you mean that statement isn't enough?"
This could revolutionize criminal justice. Just imagine instead of putting so much time and money into trying to prosecute people charged with a crime. We could just ask the accused to conduct an investigation on themself, as they are in the best position to determine e if they really did the crime or not.
Oh yeah I'm a trillionaire now.
On a completely unrelated note, I did *not* rob *or* hack several hundred banks all around the globe, and neither did I burgle millions of houses.
@@Kram1032 seems legit.
BRILLIANT!!!!
That's how it works with police departments.
You mean the way we currently figure out if Cops are breaking the law or committing police brutality?
Yeah, it's working really well.
I died laughing at the Starscream part. "He was right there behind him, he saw what happened!"
Except Starscream would admit it and brag about it.
@@Caffin8tor Yeah because he's less of a craven asshole
If only everyone investigated themselves then there would be no problems in the world because no one would ever do anything wrong.
Imagine a killer being on trial with evidence against him. "your honor I investigated the site where the bodies were dumped and found they died of natural deaths! craziest thing they all just fell into holes in my backyard and died of natural asphyxiation! I am not guilty because I checked myself!"
This is how the American Police system works as well funnily enough and by "funnily" I mean "depressingly".
Activision-Blizzard is the epitome of contemporary capitalism. Finding a rapidly growing and loosely regulated market to feed on gambling addictions and, hey, if you get to harass workers at the same time - the more power to you. Literally crushing whatever hope there was left for gamers that grew up on Warcraft 2 and Diablo 1, because monetization. I've never, ever, forever, hated a company SO MUCH.
Show how capitalist reenforces sexism, misogyny, racism, and bigotry and as we seen form Disney anti-LGBTQA for profit or the people behind want to enforce it and have power to do so and they don't want anyone to take that away form them
The state and countries these developers are based also need to step up. The US especially has pretty fucking shocking labour laws, and by shocking I mean they don't really exist. They won't change though because those with the power to do that also benefit from it, just like all these tax holes are left open all over the world. They'll march up some big company who's using the loopholes in front of Congress during election season to score some season points and ignore the bit where it's them who have the power to change these things, but won't, instead they'll just blame the company for doing what they're legally allowed to do.
As bad as Videogame companies are, companies that deal in chocolate, coffee or sugar look them look like children.
@@TalesOfWar US with unchecked neoliberal capitalism really dealt itself a bad hand. Big Tech is another example, with Mark Z. or Pichai frequently losing memory when it comes to exploitation of workforce or their consumers. When it comes to video games, I feel like the lack of regulations is a big problem. Poland labor laws are entirely different from US, yet CDPR grinded their employees through crunch that would make Bethesda proud. And capitalism a problem also, so we have a complex issue that Kotick is shamelessly profiting from.
Neo-liberalism, correction.
You ever see a headline and think "JSS is going to have a delicious field day with this"? Yeah, this was one of those times. That was some absolutely spectacular sarcasm
Oh you bet I did. I thought “oh wow this is going to be a spicy one.” And I was not disappointed.
I really wonder how many people out there won't understand that Sterling IS being sarcastic. We all know that the number is not going to be zero.
Literally had a field day. Out in the field and everything.
It reminds me of EA saying "We disagree with the evidence that lootboxes leads to gambling"
*Are gambling. They called it "Surprise mechanics." Ignoring the fact that kinder eggs actually _are_ gambling by definition.
@@mattwo7 ik I'm playing devil's advocate
kinder eggs are dirt cheap, you get both chocolate and little physical toy inside, and you can buy a couple or more, yes it's like gambling, tho at least you got a snack and a toy
With lootboxes, you don't know what's in there, it cost more money for 1, and you basically can't touch or transfer to another game
@@jarotheboar8398 "kinder eggs are dirt cheap" You uh.. Do know why micro-transactions became a thing right? Individual lootboxs rolls are usually "dirt cheap."
@@mattwo7 you should see Apex Legends Microtransactions, $7 for 1 lootbox, and mobile games aside, games are basically a full price entrance for a casino, like EA games, Ubisoft, Activision, 2K, etc.
@@mattwo7 In the broadest possible sense, yes Kinder Surprise eggs are a gamble. They're also candy and don't have rarities, at most they're stinging you for money by showing separate toys interacting in the little diagrams. Hatchimals are way more lootbox-like should've just picked those.
Meanwhile in this same week Blizzard had it's "Overwatch 2 reveal event" where the main reveal was that they're adding in a cash shop and battlepass, the same freemium bullshit that ruined every other shooter in the past half decade
Good luck with Overwatch 2 after you effectively offended the shit out of the very demografic you always marketed it to.
And off the back of Diablo Immoral raking in money hand over fist.
And I bet they’ll purposely be raking the games meta data to craft the most deviously planned battle passes to encourage people to spend or grind through it , they won’t care if ya got a fav they’ll purposely put more popular characters deeper in the pass for skins probably
I doubt they’ll do any system of like “you reached level 20 here pick any purple rarity skin” nah it’ll be set skins I imagine
Overwatch 1.1**
@@ultimamage3 what do you mean. It's launching with 3 new heroes (the same amount the game used to get in 1 year of free updates), it's practically a new game
I truly love your sarcasm. That line about Starscream was golden.
"Bobby Kotick has fallen! I, Starscream, am the new leader of Activision Blizzard! ...Wait, why are you all happy about that?"
"Yes I, the man covered in blood holding a bloody cleaver, have found myself innocent of killing 27 people with a cleaver"
Also in the news: "I didn't do the crime!" - Said almost every criminal ever. Fuck Activision! Since they bought Blizzard they haven't put out anything decent. I played almost all Diablo Starcraft and Warcraft games and it really saddens me to see what they've become.
Shoot lol. I'd argue everything from craptivision and jizzard has been ass for about a decade now lol.
Here we fucking go again with Activision Blizzard. God I fucking hate that company.
Hold up, didn't Activision Blizzard EXPLICITLY confirm a story in which Bobby Kotick threatened to kill a worker on the phone, only to say that he was 'deeply sorry' for it?
He didn't say it, and if he did he didn't mean it, and if he did, you don't understand the context, and if you do, it wasn't bad, and if it is, it could've been worse.
No it's fine, rich people can do no wrong, ever.
@@TheModdedwarfare3 F off, Activision apologist.
"There isn't and there never was any abuse at Blizzard. Just as there is no war in Ba Sing Se and just as nothing ever happened on Tiananmen Square. All people who say otherwise are dirty liars and will be abused. There is no abuse in Blizzard Sing Se!"
This is the most obvious episode to ever be made, and according to Activision it’s not their fault.
It goes without being said it's a wasted effort. Ms Sterling can do better
@@kritizismmusics9737
May as well give up and go home at this point then.
It's not like corporations are going to take notice of criticism about anything when they can conduct their own enquiries to make their own conclusions.
Oh thank god...
Imagine being so rich and powerful that you start to believe that saying "I didn't do it" is gonna save you from trouble.
So, like what actually happens right now? Cause it’s exactly what happens.
Just look at most politicians of today.
Worse: imagine being so rich that it actually works
It might, which depresses me.
Trump did it!
It's worked for Trump so far.
Activision were as angry as you were and demanded an investigation into their investigation... And they came out innocent again !
Conducted by the same team too! All of them investigated the person who sat on their left at the meetings, to avoid conflicts of interest :)
I'm amazed "self-parody" was never said in this video. Sorry to hear you're being harassed there JSS. Be yourself because we still support you!
"I have done my own investigation and have concluded that the allegations against me by Ms Windrunner are completely false," said Arthas Menethil.
"Your honour, would a guilty man own a vial of the victims blood? Wait this doesn't sound as good as it did in my head."
Jerk! I was drinking milk when I read this & choked!
Nice one!!!
funnily enough, Arthas would probably use the "royal we" in that sentence, making it even more similar to Activision's
Ms. Windrunner, inexplicably a banshee: “Screeeeeee!”
Why yes, the Kettle has indeed gotten quite sooty, Ms. Pot, but I'm not sure how to tell you this...
I swear, these corporate fools aren't even trying any more.
They just lie on the tracks and wait for the Sterling engine to run them through now.
And it's no less than what they deserve either!
Another example of corporate privalidge... Do you even know how much I have to pay to get run through by the Sterling engine!?!
The issue is that no matter how many times they get run over it never actually hurts. At worst their clothes are slightly ruffled
Hey, "We have investigated ourselves and found no evidence of wrongdoing" works for the police, why not for corporations?
"It was good that we stood around while kids got murdered in a school it's why we need more funding so more heavily armed people can stand around. It's also good that our story keeps changing everytime more evidence keeps proving our account wrong. If you disagree you're a copcist (cop racist)."
@@Faction.Paradox ACAB is a hate ideology.
YESSSS!!!
11:21 "And I've already been yelled at from a speeding car today already. So I might just run home and hide." Damn now I'm sad, Sorry Steph :(. Great video, also awful that this kind of farce is still on going. If you wrote some of this stuff into a movie it would be rejected for being ridiculous. I also appreciate little bits that are easy to forget, like saying "All the games are made in a small basement in Holland" just shows how ridiculous the systems that are in place are, when that quite clearly couldn't be true, but it is cos "Tax purposes". I hate it.
TBH where a bisness is located shouldn't matter for tax purposes, should just do it based on sales. If you sell $X worth of stuff in a country, you pay a percentage of that in cooperate taxes. Think that is what Europe was trying to do to Google, Amazon, and some other big teck companies a few years back but the US through such a fit about it they backed off.
Much support here for the Jimqusition taking on a found footage style. Who wasn’t shaken to the core when Steph was attacked by thistles. And the spooks only escalated as the video continues.
Jim*
@@Sir_Catnip I pity you.
@@michimatsch5862 why would you pity me?
@@Sir_Catnip my friend, please respect the wishes of the person who's made the video and call them by the name they prefer. I don't care if you don't believe that trans people exist, but you can say their name correctly.
Also when you've learnt basic respect you can go read a few studies on gender and see that yes, Trans-people are absolutely valid and do exist
@@8lec_R didn't Steph say you can still call them Jim tho? i'm sure i remember that from the video they came out on.
Judge: Did you steal this?
Thief: No
Judge: Ok, case closed
Just replace that "no" with "check your bank account, your honor".
@@mekannatarry1929 Yes and no, in this case they do not even pay anything. They just state it. :)
That's how it works according to my mother's stories, when she was working on the police force.
We're British. Our system is crap too.
Journalists: Why dont you back it up with a source?
Activition: I made it the fuck up
"There simply is no room at Activision Blizzard for anyone who does not practice our corporate value of providing a safe, inclusive and welcoming workplace that serves as a model for our industry."
Hold on Steph, that part's true - they've already got so many of those people on the executive payroll they've actually had to let some of them go. No room for fresh sex pest hires here!
It can also mean that they fire anyone who is not a harassing sex pest since their corporate "values" approve of that behavior.
There's no room at Activision-Blizzard for such people. They have entire *floors* for them. So technically, what they said is true.
There's so little room, they need to use the Diablo Immoral money to expand company grounds to fit more of those people.
that zoom in on Cocky Bobbicks face starting at 4:55 is proof that uncanny valley indeed does exist in RL.
He looks like a sewer dwelling Goblin that a fairy god mother cast a spell to make human, but she wasn't very good at magic so he's still a greedy, disgusting, filth dwelling creature.
He looks like an evil human Troll Doll
The shitty part is, I knew this was coming due to an Investor vote a couple months ago. Due to my Public app, I own a super tiny sliver of Activision-Blizzard so I could vote.
One of the questions was (paraphrased) "Move to deny allegations". I don't remember the wording but did screencap it just for a lark as I KNEW ActiBliz would try shit like this.
What's been eating at me recently is how several people I know suddenly stopped caring about all the ActiBlizz drama just because they're now owned by Microsoft.
It's like when Nestle "sold off" their bottled water brands in NA. No small number of people started acting like that changed anything, but they'd just spun that department off; it was still the same people calling the shots as had been previously (and where either at the helm or in senior positions for most of the shit they've pulled).
ActiBlizz still has 90%+ the same senior leadership they had before MSoft bought them. We shouldn't assume they've changed their stripes until they prove it (and they certainly seem to be doing the opposite of that).
@@eruantien9932 the Microsoft purchase hasn't gone through yet and still might not.
TBH Microsoft probably has a lot of the same skeletons on their closet too.
@@scottthewaterwarrior Exactly.
Another thing that gets me is how they're making these claims after firing a bunch of those involved in said drama (McCree anyone?) like we haven't been paying attention over the past two plus years.
I'll buy their OS when I absolutely have to after a few years when I need to hop rigs, but MS has never been anywhere close to being a company I like, that's purely because I dislike Apple more and my dumb ass wouldn't even know the first thing about setting up Linux. Otherwise, I'm not inclined to throw favour at the company that normalized paying for online gaming on consoles while shafting their PC userbase with their consoles' exclusive lineups. Sod 'em.
Activision: "Apologise sincerely and launch a genuine investigation into serial harrassers and fire them, or deny any fault? Deny all fault, of course!"
Corporation don't even know of the word "sincerely"
When I heard this story, I didn't buy it for one damn second. This "investigation" is about as valid as any from a police department anytime an officer shoots someone because the "feared for their life." I hope the lawsuits drag all their disgusting behavior kicking and screaming into the light for all to see.
Stay safe Steph! Don't let the bastards grind you down!
Jim*
@@Sir_Catnip Your parents must be really proud of you, how you valiantly try to be a useless bigot on the internet for a small token of appreciation from strangers that you never got at home.
@@Sir_Catnip They literally changed their middle name to Stephanie, and they've not corrected anyone themselves for the use of it that I've seen. They tweeted THEMSELVES that it is one of the names they will accept. You are both wrong and out of your lane.
@@schnozbott They? Who are these people you are talking about?
@@immortalnub Sterling is trans non-binary, do try to keep up, it's only been nearly 2 years since then.
I laughed my ass off when I found out that Activision's personal investigation revealed they're innocent. But seriously this is no laughing matter and someone else should do the investigation next.
Fantavision tried to act as though he believed the self-investigation, but couldn’t maintain the bit
"We did nothing wrong right this second. Yes, historically we may have done something wrong. But right now, right this second, nothing is wrong. So stop saying we're doing something wrong right now." Activision Blizzard probably
And even that is a lie. The very existence of billionaires is inherently unethical, and perpetuating that by providing them with yet more income and bonuses is a thing ABK does wrong continuously, every second of every day, until they stop.
"I did not hit her, it’s not true! It’s bullshit! I did not hit her! I did not! Oh hai, Mark." - Activision, 2022.
The minute I read that absolute bullsh!t statement from activision, I was waiting for your reply. I knew if anyone could pick this apart down to the bone, it would be you. Another absolute banger of a video, Steph.
Jim*
@@Sir_Catnip this is at least the third time I’ve seen you with this same comment. People have explained that they except Steph so dude just stop. You’re not helpful. You’re being a pebble in a shoe. Annoying.
Dan at Nerdcubed mentioned this over the weekend and I immediately knew what your next video was going to be about.
It just shows how scummy and disgusting Activision Blizzard are that they consider all these issues as 'doing nothing wrong'. Is it so prevalent within their company that it's completely normalised and considered not wrong? Yes it is and we know it is because they are telling us it is.
I really hope Super Bunnyhop does an investigation on this filing, this is totally up his alley and it's got a lot of juicy details in it.
Gallows humour at its grimmest, but the Starscream reference genuinely made my day.
Take a shot every time James Stephanie says Activision blizzard and you'd be drunk enough to believe Activision Blizzard by 3 minutes in
"we did nothing wrong!" "you've already been convicted, there's literally hard evidence" "yeah uh... you see, this proves that truth itself is subjective, and sometimes contradictory. Yup. That's got to be it. Final answer!"
The state of Jim these days.
Oh, I was waiting for this one. It is so laughable, and I knew you would make this so much better,
That first shot was like the intro of one of those found-footage horror movies. The Blair Witch Project but the villain abuses workers instead of killing university students.
Good news, all of the abuse was targeted at those who shouldn't have dressed that way if they didn't want it!
Couldn't even be bothered to use a third party investigation to give the look of at least being unbiased.. Is this for the stock owners? Do they think this will work on them?
This is absolutely laughable. Amazing stuff Steph! Keep up.the fab work!!!
Jim*
@@Sir_Catnip hm.. she refers to herself as Stephanie on a fairly regular basis.. so.. ?
@@Sir_Catnip Grow up.
@@Alice-May that’d mean they’d have to find something else to do than waste their time finding every comment to ‘correct’
ikr.
Fucking wow. Does every HR department and manager read the same book on brushing credible allegations aside?
Someone I am very close with has experienced this exact same treatment after reporting an extremely hostile work environment. They were told "they are just one person, we're not changing anything because of one person's complaint, you waited too long, it's time to move on, etc". In fact the only "investigation" that occurred was trying to get my friend fired for reporting the hostility of a favored employee.
Ass covering and favoritism is rampant at the upper levels of every company.
Activition: Evidence? That's not how our Cort system works.
Everyone else: Well then how does it work?
Activition: Simple. First you say what happened, then I say what happened, and then I decided who's right. That's why it's called justice, because it's just us. Mah ha ha ha.
"I'd ask Starscream. He was standing right behind me so he'd have seen who done it."
ROFL.
WWE is about to do the same thing with Vince McMahon sadly.
The old creep will drag that company to hell with him.
You say that as if Vince hasn't dragged the company to hell years ago already.
@@dano8902 you ain't lyin'.
Loved that sign off. Thank god for you, JSS. It's lovely to see you so excited and happy!
This has convinced me. I'm about to spend 10000 dollars in the new diablo game to get all the things right now, I happen to have a spare 10000 dollars on me just lying around. Definitely the most enjoyable game, very fair.
That’s 100k if you want to get all the things though
"I'm gonna pay Activision Blizzard $10k to teach them a lesson. That lesson is... Predatory monetization in video games benefits us all!"
Actual estimates are about 100k per character and role
@@learntooilpaint Nah, that isn't true at all, you're just biased against the company. The evidence clearly shows it's $16k.
/S
@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 did activision tell you that ? If so I apologise.
We've investigated ourselves and found ourselves guilty of no wrongdoings.
It's nice to know Bobbers Kotick learned how to run a corporation from the U.S police.
Imagine if the predators from To Catch a Predator could just do "investigations" on themselves and declare themselves innocent.
That bit on Starscream shooting one in the back had me rolling. Awesome vid as always!
Activision has become the video game equivalent of O.J. Simpson, in my opinion! Both believe they are innocent. but they clearly are guilty as fuck!
Great video! Thanks for keeping us informed on this. that is just.. such a gross thing for them to have done..
Hmm, I'm still unsure about this. Activision should launch an investigation of its investigation to make sure it was conducted fairly and properly, just to be safe
I saw this news article a couple of days ago, eyes nearly rolled out of my head
FINALLY! I can now go pre-order Overwatch 1.5, safe in the knowledge that the Activision Blizzard and their worm overlord Bobby Kotick are innocent and did nothing at all wrong. Thank you Activision Blizzard for clearing Activision Blizzard's name.
I appreciate you taking yourself to dangerous locations to report on the news for us
I miss the era of drawing little devil horns on Bobby Kotick
"Jurassic Park is totally safe and no dinosaurs are running loose" says Jurassic Park
stay safe while doing these intro+outros, steph.
BBC foreign correspondent vibes
"There is no evidence to suggest" hits different. It's not that it didn't happen. It's that they checked, and their confident they can get away with it
My main hope is that when Microsoft take ownership that they 1. Do not pretend nothing is wrong there. And 2. Step up and fix, or at least try to fix, the issues there.
Bigger corporations aren't the solution to corporate abuse.
They wont
That Starscream analogy was exquisite.
phew, thank god. I was a little worried about the state of the gaming industry, but according to the gaming industry everything is fine. If only more nice people like Bobby would run the world, everything would be great. I'm going back to trying to sell my car so I can afford a small chance of getting a 5/5 star gem in Diablo immortal.
Activision: Are you guilty?
Activision: Not guilty!
Activision: Well that settles it then.
Your videos have been the highlight of my Mondays for a loong time now.
The moment I first heard about this I just knew it was a matter of time before Jim uploaded this for Mondays are always coming.
"Some rowdy teens probably did it."
I feel a little dirty for laughing, given what they reportedly did. But yeah.
The only thing that could make that Umbrella tweet better is if Resident Evil were an Activision game.
Great video! Sorry to hear you are getting dirty looks and people shouting though. Keeping my fingers crossed for the day the Commander graces my city with their presence!
Thank God for you, Steph.
Eh???!
This is what makes Britain great! Rude twats and bicycles on pavements. It is brilliant.
Just when you thought capitalization and corporatization of justice system in US can't be real, there comes out AB with yet another proof that it is.
Any other normal country would long ago see to millions of dollars in reparations for the victims, but on in the corporate US where DFEH going after abusers is "negatively impacting business opportunities and jobs" (as if AB firing hundreds of employees at once was securing their jobs, ffs).
I'm genuinely scared of US while at the same time happy I don't live there. It's mind boggling!
Warning: Weapons grade sarcasm detected! Take protective measures now!
“Freddy Fazbear’s pizza is the safest place on Earth,” said the Phone Guy.
Time to find a pillow to scream into, and a worthless table to kick in clear two pieces. Argh!
I have no words for my hate to Bobby, or the company that has shattered my fucking childhood memories.
Damn. I've thought this before, but seriously, your hair and makeup is always on point. Full marks.
As for Blizzard, this is just a sign of how low the bar has gotten in the gaming industry, and will show all the other companies exactly how much they can get away with, from now on.
It'll also be a beacon to all the up-and-coming creeps of which industry to go into, for free access to female coworkers who can't do anything about their harassment, or risk being blacklisted. (Now that Hollywood and kids' television aren't open secrets anymore.)
I think this is the earliest Jimquisition I have ever watched.
Jim-Steph is in the UK again, so earlier videos ahoy
I have investigated myself and found nothing.
Meanwhile, Devil Kotick has entirely redeemed himself and he is no longer an utter scourge and a virulent plague on the gaming industry. Happy endings everywhere!
When Hell freezes over.
How would they not expect this to come across as absolute bullshit? I mean they might look at the overall picture of how they aren't ever going to fix their publicity issues and just say "fuck it, they won't believe anything so might as well say the most positive thing we can" but it just continues to kick the can down the road.
Jim Steph on point as usual. Oh man... I am so done with actiblisssard!
How quickly you're distracted by bees is very relatable.
I need to set a criteria for when I'll stop blacklisting Activision.
When they’re too integrated into Microsoft to be avoided, I think. 🙃
@@nekolalia3389 No, I can still not buy their games.
I'd say you don't really need to. Mostly because any bar you set is still too high for the foreseeable future.
@@SCh1m3ra Just because I'm willing to give them a change doesn't mean I expect them to succeed. I been Blacklisting EA since 2010, they haven't yet to redeem themselves even ones.
We REALLY need to bring back the devil horn pictures
Activision investigated Activision and found that Activision did nothing wrong.
It is like if a murrderer investigated their scene of crime and found no evidence of them killing anyone
@@obitosenju3768 someone wanna break it to Actiblizz that Heavy Rain did it before and better
@@obitosenju3768 I mean, we don't even need to imagine this, if you look at serial killer John Christie, the guy was a former cop who the police brought in to testify against the husband of the neighbour he killed, confirming the poor guy was definitely, absolutely the murderer.
The sarcasm on display was so much that it overloaded my poor sarcasm detector and now I need to buy a new one.
I mean...self-regulating works right? Especially in a capitalistic system?
James Stephanie Sterling and Simon Miller from WhatCulture in the same ring was something I never knew I wanted to see.
And thank god for it.
What a relief to see them so fully exonerated. Thank you Acti-Blizz for yor diligence.
"There is no war in Ba Sing Se"
"Weve investigated ourselves and we found ourselves innocent." -Activision
Please consider photoshopping the devil horns back on Kotick because he's genuinly /more/ terrifying without them.
totally off topic but that trans flag eyeshadow is GORGEOUS btw
Any comment on UA-cam protecting Quantum TV harassing the LGBT community? He is on record as wishing more "of them" died in the Pulse Nightclub massacre and UA-cam have been shutting down anyone calling him out.