Activision Blizzard faces fallout from employees and gamers angered by response to lawsuit

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."