In a blog post on Thursday, Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra talked about Blizzard's recent acquisition by Microsoft, the year 2021 and the company's improvement plans for beyond 2022. Among other things, he outlined his goal of "rebuilding trust" from fans and staff.
There were many issues within Activision-Blizzard in 2021, from the alleged poor culture to the discrimination lawsuit that caused turmoil within the company. The lingering effects of this lawsuit have led to staff layoffs, character name changes, and calls for significant changes within the company. Even so, conditions at Activision Blizzard studio Raven Software saw the escalation of a workers' strike in December. But with Microsoft's entire acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Ybarra took to Blizzard's site to talk further. There were differing points as to what these changes were and will continue to be.
Ybarra's post listed the changes Blizzard has managed so far. First, the company “measures our executive and management teams directly against culture development. “This means that their (and mine) success and compensation will depend directly on our overall success in creating a safe, inclusive and creative work environment at Blizzard.”
Second, Blizzard is “devoting more full-time roles and resources to developing our culture.” These added roles include a culture leader, a new Human Resources (HR) organization leader, and a Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DE&I) leader.
Third, the company has “tripled” the number of compliance and investigation teams, appealing to all staff, including management.
Finally, the company implemented an "up-feedback program." This is intended to help staff evaluate their management and manage quality within the company.
Ybarra states that these changes are just the beginning of Blizzard's future. At the end of his post on Blizzard's forums, Ybarra states that he "knows that we need to deliver content to our players more regularly and innovate both within and beyond our existing games." We have some exciting things to announce and I'll be sharing more next week."
Being a part of Microsoft is not only a fresh start, it also offers a chance to improve the problems that Activision Blizzard is experiencing. With the recent announcement by Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, the team is trying to keep as many employees away from their team as possible before acquiring Microsoft. The future is uncertain for Blizzard's plans for 2022, but Ybarra says the community's calls have been heard.