Activision Blizzard’s Diablo IV is a success. The recreation bought extra copies throughout its prelaunch interval than every other Blizzard Leisure title earlier than it. Gamers 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 end result for a firm 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 business has no clear reply on the way to reconcile its profitable AAA video games—years-long artistic undertakings, made doable by groups of lots of—with the situations underneath which they’re created. Gamers need to navigate this, too, when deciding whether or not or not they wish to purchase a title that comes from Activision Blizzard.

That actually doesn’t imply the corporate isn’t making an attempt to assist gamers overlook. Forward of Diablo IV’s launch, CEO Bobby Kotick has been making the injury management rounds. In a current interview with Selection, 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 Alternative Fee, did not have a harassment downside. As a substitute, Kotick claimed, it was “mischaracterizations reported by the media” and “outdoors forces”—specifically the rising unionization efforts inside its studios—making the corporate look unhealthy. “We didn’t have a systemic concern with harassment—ever,” Kotick, who reportedly knew about harassment for years, instructed the outlet. “However what we did have was a very aggressive labor motion working exhausting to attempt to destabilize the corporate.”

The similar day Selection revealed its story, Activision Blizzard’s board launched its very first transparency report by which it claims “even one occasion 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 staff, two represented conduct by contingent employees, and 5 have been non-employees, together with, for instance, esports gamers and testers.” 

Harassment isn’t the one downside on the recreation improvement large. A Washington Submit report final 12 months detailed brutal crunch situations on the firm because the workforce 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 trying to full its acquisition by Microsoft across the time of Diablo IV’s launch. That acquisition has since been delayed following considerations from US and UK regulators that would take months to resolve. 

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

“I’m not like different CEOs which might be anti-union,” Kotick stated within the Selection interview, pointing to his membership with the Display screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Tv and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) as proof of his sentiments. (He joined the union as half of his cameo within the 2011 sports activities drama Moneyball.) “If we’ve got staff who need a union to symbolize them, they usually consider that that union goes to have the ability to present them with alternatives and enhancements to their work expertise, I’m all for it.”

However Activision Blizzard has but to barter a contract with its unions. Final October, the Nationwide Labor Relations Board discovered advantage in allegations that the corporate withheld raises from members of a bargaining committee at subsidiary Raven Software program. Moreover, some staff inside these unions have described a bitter struggle each step of the best way.

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 taking place on the firm. Within 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 a little higher.