Activision-Blizzard Chief Operating Officer Daniel Alegre sent ’round a press release this week attempting to send a strong signal to the studio’s workforce that hiring practices are about to shift significantly in the near future.
After making data available regarding Activision-Blizzard’s current workforce demographics, Alegre said that the studio is vowing to increase the hires of both women and minorities in the coming years. Currently, Activision-Blizzard is made up of 24% women and 36% minorities. “Within our business units, however, these numbers vary widely – with some exceeding this industry comparison and others behind,” he admits, which along with pay distribution, advancement opportunities, and harassment of women and minorities is the very problem workers and even outgoing executives have long since called out.
“While representation company-wide is similar to our peer gaming companies in the United States, this is wholly inadequate in my mind. We will do better. We have a lot of work to do as we build an organization where diversity is as much a core value as innovation,” Alegre wrote.
Activision-Blizzard did post its company representation data and reiterated that it’s investing $250 million to “accelerate opportunities for diverse talent.”
The announcement comes against the backdrop of the ongoing discrimination scandal and ABK’s move earlier this month to lay off yet another chunk of staff this year, bolstering the unionization effort at the company that Activision-Blizzard has openly sought to quash.
