Activision Blizzard fires 20 employees over discrimination and harassment allegations and hopes to dismantle DFEH's lawsuit

Since Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) sued Activision Blizzard for discrimination and harassment, the company has fired 20 employees and “reprimanded” another 20 to create “a more accountable workplace.”

This is according to Activision Blizzard’s chief compliance officer Frances Townsend, who spoke to Financial Times. She declined to name the affected individuals, nor did she make it clear whether the number includes former high-level devs Luis Barriga, Jesse McCree, and Jonathan LeCraft.

Townsend did say, though, that the firings affected several developers and their supervisors, but not anybody on the company’s board or senior management team.

As for DFEH’s lawsuit, Activision Blizzard is now asking courts to pause it following the allegations by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that DFEH’s lawyers committed ethical violations. Axios’ Stephen Totilo believes that “the EEOC’s and California DFEH’s squabbling regarding their formerly collaborative investigations of Activision” could lead to DFEH’s case being disqualified, “presumably killing the case if the court agrees.”