Bad working conditions in the video game industry are unfortunately not uncommon, from excessive crunch at studios like Rockstar Games or Naughty Dog to lawsuits against Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard for harassment, discrimination and more.
For some fans, of course, the question arises as to how they should react to this themselves and what influence they, as consumers, can have on the development studios and publishers. For some, the logical next step is to boycott these companies. Last but not least, it was trending in the last few months #HoldUbisoftAccountable and #BoycottBlizzard on Twitter, fans encouraged each other to stop playing or buying the games from said companies. This should be a sign of protest against existing conditions. The thought behind it often: Profit is the only thing that large publishers and development studios listen to.
However, this not only has the desired effect of damaging the company financially (and is often less effective than hoped) – the employees themselves are also often affected. And usually much harder.
“It harms the people who work there”
In July 2021, Activision Blizzard was sued by the US government agency DFEH for sexual discrimination against employees. Specifically, it was about allegations of sexual harassment, unequal pay and retaliation against those women who would defend themselves.
In the meantime, the publisher even sees himself as well a lawsuit by its own employees who accuse Activision Blizzard of union busting and intimidation.
Since then, Blizzard boss J. Allen Brack has left the company, Luis Barriga (Diablo 4 director), Jesse McCree (Diablo 4 lead designer) and Jonathan LeCraft (World of Warcraft designer) followed. The hashtag #BoycottBlizzard landed back in the trends on Twitter due to disgruntled fans and was intended to motivate others to stop playing games like Overwatch and World of Warcraft.
Fans called for games like Overwatch to be boycotted.
In response to the protest, Tami Sigmund, Senior Producer at Blizzard, stated in one Twitter-Threadthat she can understand why people don’t want to support a company that is inconsistent with their morals. At the same time, she pointed out that employees are directly affected when people no longer spend money on games:
“If people don’t spend money on our games, my profit share and the amount of my bonus will be affected. This lawsuit could mean that in March, when my maternity leave ends and my child has to go to childcare, I won’t get the bonus I need, to pay for childcare. “
Link to Twitter content
Sigmund does not seem to be alone with this statement. The magazine Axios spoke to other Activision Blizzard employees who do not wish to be named. Several of them affirm that boycotts would harm employees more than the company. Not only are boycotts ineffective because too few people participate to worry companies and investors – positions in development teams are also most at risk from lost profits, as one person explains:
“It hurts the people who work there, who put their lives into the game and who are determined to find AB Studios [Anm. d. Red.: Activision Blizzard] and make all game studios better places. We cannot solve the problems if we are laid off, and we cannot support women if we boycott all the work they have created and are doing. “
#BoycottBlizzard is not trending for the first time
Game boycott is of course not a novelty and #BoycottBlizzard is not trending for the first time on Twitter and Co.
There was already an incident in October 2019 that triggered negative reactions in the community. As a reminder: After winning a Hearthstone tournament, the e-athlete Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai spoke out in favor of the protests in Hong Kong with the Chinese words “Free Hong Kong, the revolution of our time”. Blizzard then imposed a one-year ban, which banned Blitzchung from participating in Hearthstone tournaments and denied him the prize money of almost 14,500 euros he had earned so far.
Blizzard received a lot of criticism for this approach, both from its own employees and from fans who called for a boycott of titles such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch, as reported by our sister site Gamestar. The strong reaction seemed to be having an effect: Blitzchung’s ban was reduced to six months and he still got his prize money.
Whether and to what extent the boycott was part of it (besides the negative media attention) can of course only be speculated. What remains is the question of what the ethical consumption of video games looks like for fans and how they can support the affected development teams for their favorite games without harming the wrong people.
There is probably no simple answer to this. At least in the case of Activision Blizzard, the employees themselves chose the hashtag #ActiBlizWalkout as a sign of their protest, unlike the #BoycottBlizzard used by fans. So it is at least obvious to support the initiatives chosen by those affected, because ultimately the protest should ultimately benefit them.
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