Activision Blizzard has been in the center of a number of controversies over the last year, with reports emerging of persistent and widespread abuse and toxicity at the company, going to the very top (which, combined with other factors, has also led to employees of the company taking a step toward unionizing). When fresh reports emerged detailing some of the company’s troubling issues in November, platform holders Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo all spoke out against the same, and recently, Xbox boss Phil Spencer elaborated on that.
Speaking with The New York Times, Spencer said that since the aforementioned reports, Xbox has changed the way it does “certain things” with Activision.
“The work we do specifically with a partner like Activision is something that, obviously, I’m not going to talk publicly about,” he said (via VGC). “We have changed how we do certain things with them, and they’re aware of that.”
He added: “Any of the partners that are out there, if I can learn from them or I can help with the journey that we’ve been on on Xbox by sharing what we’ve done and what we’ve built, I’d much rather do that than get into any kind of finger-wagging at other companies that are out there.”
Later, he added: “In terms of work that we do with other companies, again, I would rather help other companies than try to get into punishing. I don’t think my job is out there to punish other companies.
“I think in terms of interactions with other companies, the things that we choose to do with our brand and our platform, in coordination or not with other companies, is the avenue that we have to have an impact. I would say in terms of individuals that are in leadership positions at other companies, it’s not obviously our position to judge who the CEOs are. Like, CEOs are chosen by shareholders and boards.
“At Xbox, I know who I’m accountable for here in terms of the business and the operations. It’s my teams here, my management chain. And that’s the thing that we continue to focus on, is to try to grow. And whether that’s us sharing, again, the experiences that we have with other partners, if we can help them on their own journey or on the things that happen in our own teams.”
Back in November, reports claimed that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick would consider resigning from his post if he was unable to bring quick and necessary improvements to the state of the company. Read more on that through here.
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