Activision Blizzard faces fallout from employees and gamers angered by response to lawsuit
CBSN
Outrage is growing among employees and customers of video game maker Activision Blizzard, with both groups calling for company officials to fix the "frat boy" work culture that allegedly drove one woman to commit suicide, according to a sexual harassment lawsuit filed last week by California regulators.
More than 2,000 current and former employees, according to the latest tally, signed an open letter to company leadership earlier this week denouncing the game maker for its "abhorrent and insulting" response to a lawsuit by California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The DFEH lawsuit accuses Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard of gender pay discrimination and of allowing ongoing sexual harassment complaints to go unresolved. In the letter, employees petition for "immediate corrections ... from the highest level of our organization." Activision Blizzard said last week that the lawsuit allegations are inaccurate, adding that "the picture the DFEH paints is not the Blizzard workplace of today."Strong storms with damaging winds and baseball-sized hail pummeled Texas on Tuesday, leaving more than one million businesses and homes without power as much of the U.S. recovered from severe weather, including tornadoes, that killed at least 24 people in seven states during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Actor Richard Dreyfuss is facing backlash for allegedly sharing remarks that audience members found sexist, homophobic and generally offensive at a Q&A event over the weekend tied to a Massachusetts theater's screening of "Jaws." Dreyfuss starred in the 1975 blockbuster that was filmed in Massachusetts and screened Saturday night at The Cabot, a performing arts center in the coastal community of Beverly.