Blizzard Boss Details Plan to 'Rebuild Trust'

Blizzard head Mike Ybarra published a blog post outlining his plan to "rebuild trust" in the company Thursday after reports about the toxic work culture and sexual harassment at Blizzard emerged last year.

"2021 was challenging for all of us," he wrote. "As individuals, we care about treating everyone around us with respect and dignity. As professionals, we care deeply about our crafts, and we want to work in the most supportive and safe environment possible."

Ybarra, who became the lone head of Blizzard after co-head Jen Oneal resigned from her role after just two months, said rebuilding trust in the company was its top priority. To that end, he detailed several actions the team will or has taken to improve company culture.

So far, Blizzard has tripled the size of its compliance and investigation teams, shared representation data and goals internally, and implemented a new upward feedback program for employees to evaluate management.

Going forward, executive and management compensation will depend directly on "our overall success in creating a safe, inclusive, and creative work environment at Blizzard." The company will also create new full-time roles and resources dedicated to improving culture, including a culture leader, a new leader for human resources and a DE&I leader.

"These actions are just the beginning of the work that lies ahead for Blizzard," Ybarra wrote. "I'm motivated and excited to work directly on building the best environment for our teams, to allow them to bring their visions to life."

Blizzard remains a hotspot for employee organizing as it and the rest of Activision Blizzard's portfolio reckon with revelations about toxic culture across the company. QA testers at Raven Software, another Activision Blizzard studio, announced their union, the Game Workers Alliance, Friday.