An Activision Blizzard employee who sued the video game maker, alleging she suffered a backlash for complaining about sexual harassment and discrimination while working in the IT department’s “frat boy atmosphere,” dropped her lawsuit.
Attorneys for the plaintiff identified only as Jane Doe filed court papers on Monday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Armen Tamzarian asking that their client’s case be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning in cannot be refiled.
The new court papers do not state if a settlement was reached, but previous court papers filed on Aug. 23 stated that the case “may soon settle.” No terms were referred to in any of the court papers.
In their court papers, Activision Blizzard attorneys denied the plaintiff’s allegations and cited multiple defenses, including that her claims were barred by the statute of limitations, that she had not pursued an internal grievance before suing and that she had agreed to arbitrate rather than litigate any disputes.
According to Doe’s suit, Activision Blizzard “is a massive video game company with a massive sexual harassment problem.”
The suit filed in March 2022 alleged sexual battery, failure to prevent harassment, sexual favoritism and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Doe also sought the removal of CEO Bobby Kotick and an order preventing Mark Skorupa — one of her ex-bosses and a co-defendant in the suit — from having any contact with her. Skorupa was later dropped as a defendant.
Kotick is still on contract with the company through April 2024, according to media reports.
According to the suit, Activision Blizzard’s open “frat boy atmosphere” has fostered rampant sexism, harassment and discrimination with 700 reported incidents occurring under Kotick’s watch.
Doe was hired at the company in October 2017 as a senior administrative assistant to Skorupa and senior director Eric Kou in Activision Blizzard’s IT department and she immediately began to experience harassment and gender discrimination, the suit stated.
On the plaintiff’s first day, Skorupa and others took Doe to a luncheon where she was pressured to drink multiple tequila shots, the suit stated. Skorupa put his hand on Doe’s lap, the suit alleged.
On Doe’s second day, an executive administrative assistant sent the plaintiff an email with a comment about hookers, according to the suit.
At the November 2017 BlizzCon event held by the company, the executive administrative assistant and Skorupa pressured Doe to “drink with the team,” leaving her drunk, the suit stated Skorupa gave Doe the key to his hotel room, saying he was not using it that night, and she went there to sleep, the suit stated.
“Ms. Doe does not remember much else from that night other than waking up in the middle of the night in a state of shock as she was completely naked — something very unusual for her — and then driving home,” the suit stated.
In July 2018, Skorupa drove with Doe in a convertible car to a facility the company has in Burbank and “told her that her breasts were going to get a nice tan,” the suit stated.
Doe alleged that after she complained about her work environment, her job duties were reduced and she ultimately accepted a demotion to escape the “rampant sexism” in the IT department. She also maintained she was moved from an office to a cubicle and denied open positions for which she was qualified. Human resources “acknowledged that leadership was retaliating against her and bullying her, but it did not help her in any way” and told her “that if she was not happy, there was always the option to find a job outside of Activision Blizzard,” the suit stated.