Activision Blizzard’s Diablo IV is successful. The recreation offered extra copies throughout its prelaunch interval than some other Blizzard Entertainment title earlier than it. Players have already spent 93 million hours with the sport, and counting. Even earlier than its full launch this week, critics have been praising its design and story. It’s a uncommon constructive consequence for an organization that’s been mired in controversy.

Since 2021, Activision Blizzard’s place in headlines has been subsequent to allegations of harassment and information of burgeoning union efforts. The online game trade has no clear reply on find out how to reconcile its profitable AAA video games—years-long artistic undertakings, made potential by groups of a whole bunch—with the situations underneath which they’re created. Players need to navigate this, too, when deciding whether or not or not they wish to purchase a title that comes from Activision Blizzard.

That definitely doesn’t imply the corporate isn’t making an attempt to assist gamers neglect. Ahead of Diablo IV’s launch, CEO Bobby Kotick has been making the harm management rounds. In a latest interview with Variety, the CEO claimed Activision Blizzard, which paid $18 million simply final 12 months to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, did not have a harassment downside. Instead, Kotick claimed, it was “mischaracterizations reported by the media” and “outside forces”—particularly the rising unionization efforts inside its studios—making the corporate look dangerous. “We did not have a systemic issue with harassment—ever,” Kotick, who reportedly knew about harassment for years, advised the outlet. “But what we did have was a very aggressive labor movement working hard to try and destabilize the company.”

The identical day Variety revealed its story, Activision Blizzard’s board launched its very first transparency report through which it claims “even one instance of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation is one too many.” Per the report, the corporate acquired 114 claims of harassment in 2022. A complete of 36 of these have been substantiated; the corporate acknowledged that 29 of the claims “represented conduct by our employees, two represented conduct by contingent workers, and five were non-employees, including, for example, esports players and testers.” 

Harassment isn’t the one downside on the recreation improvement big. A Washington Post report final 12 months detailed brutal crunch situations on the firm because the crew behind Diablo IV stared down lengthy hours to fulfill the sport’s launch date. That report got here at a time when Activision Blizzard was seeking to full its acquisition by Microsoft across the time of Diablo IV’s launch. That acquisition has since been delayed following concerns from US and UK regulators that might take months to resolve. 

This additionally occurred amidst ongoing unionization efforts at Activision Blizzard, which sprang up as staff grew more and more bored with poor office practices. Those efforts resulted within the creation of two unions on the firm (a 3rd effort sprang up at a sister studio earlier than organizers withdrew their petition to unionize).

“I am not like other CEOs that are anti-union,” Kotick mentioned within the Variety interview, pointing to his membership with the Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) as proof of his sentiments. (He joined the union as a part of his cameo within the 2011 sports activities drama Moneyball.) “If we have employees who want a union to represent them, and they believe that that union is going to be able to provide them with opportunities and enhancements to their work experience, I’m all for it.”

But Activision Blizzard has but to barter a contract with its unions. Last October, the National Labor Relations Board discovered benefit in allegations that the corporate withheld raises from members of a bargaining committee at subsidiary Raven Software. Furthermore, some workers inside these unions have described a bitter fight each step of the way in which.

Which brings us to the launch of Diablo IV. Even amidst all of the turmoil at Activision Blizzard, the sport’s devs hit their deadline. And their work has produced a critically praised recreation. In earlier years, devs on the firm have requested followers to not boycott video games in response to what’s occurring on the firm. In the lead-up to Diablo IV‘s launch, there have been questions on whether or not or not followers would heed that decision or if the controversies surrounding the corporate would affect gross sales. The former appears to be the case—making the sport’s creators look good, and Activision Blizzard look somewhat higher.