Sledgehammer Addresses Allegations Ahead Of COD Reveal

In terms of Activision-Blizzard, I am low on the priority to be black bagged. However, the idea of revoking press access to things never escapes me. Nonetheless, I continue to cover Activision-Blizzard’s recent legal and PR troubles, as the company is rocked by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The department looks to correct a history of harassment, discrimination, troubled HR reputation, and neglect to those issues. In our most recent articles on the allegations rocking the publisher and developer, we noted major departures to the Diablo IV team and investors calling the initial response “Inadequate.”

According to Eurogamer at a press event in support of the newly announced Call of Duty: Vanguard, Sledgehammer Games’ head Aaron Halon addressed the matter. Of course, he was not able to directly comment on the lawsuit from the DFEH in the same way Fran Townsend recently did, which resulted in deleting her Twitter. In his comments, Halon only offered his support for those who’ve dealt with the recounted incidents in the lawsuit and further reports online. He also stated that his studio will not put up with any harassment.

Halon said: “[…] on behalf of Sledgehammer Games, and all of the teams supporting Call of Duty Vanguard, harassment of any kind goes against everything we stand for as a studio. Everyone, regardless of title, role, gender, orientation, ethnicity, should be treated always with dignity, respect, and equality.” This only comes a week after Polygon reported repeated cases of QA testers on the Activision side of the fence being treated like dirt. Polygon also mentioned that a majority of the reports thus far have focused on Blizzard’s Overwatch and World of Warcraft teams. This was the first major case of misconduct for the Call of Duty teams. QA and Customer support staff were harassed, given death threats, and generally felt discouraged by the company’s practices.

Halon commented further, stating: “While we cannot comment on the lawsuit, we are committed to making sure all team members feel safe, welcome, and respected. So please know as we start our presentation that these thoughts and actions are at the top of our minds, and will be going forward.” Before returning to the matter of Vanguard in an awkward transition, Halon said, “They speak to the core values of who we are and who we wish to be. On behalf of everyone on the team, thank you.”

The reveal of Vanguard yesterday was, of course, what broke headlines. The latest Call of Duty will be coming to the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on November 5th.