CoD: Vanguard Devs on Activision Blizzard Scandals
Treyarch Studio, the creators of the Zombie mode for Call of Duty: Vanguard and Black Ops - Cold War, referred to the scandals surrounding Activision Blizzard. The developers want to start 2022 with a clean slate.
The end of the old year and the beginning of the new is a good time for summaries, promises and assurances. This is known to developers from Treyarch Studios - the creators of the Zombies mode for Call of Duty: Vanguard and Black Ops - Cold War. They decided to present on Twitter their position on to the scandals at Activision Blizzardas a result of which its co-founder, Dan Bunting, said goodbye to the team. As we read in this message:
"Our goal as a studio is to make awesome games for the world to enjoy. Having the priviledge to pursue that endeavour is made possible by Treyarch's people: we are a studio comprised of smart, talented, world-class creative professionals who seek to perform at our best. Our culture has no room for sexism, harassment, racism, bigotry, discrimination or bullying. As we move forward, providing a safe, diverse and inclusive working environment so that all may thrive will be our highest priority. Everyone at Treyarch is drawn to game development because we possesa deep love for the artistry of video games and the magic that can create moments that matter. This is a moment that matters and it starts by being better.
Treyarch"
Well, next year will certainly tell, whether this is a sincere plea from the disgruntled creators, or whether it should be put between other corporate babble and forgotten. The aforementioned Dan Bunting, who - it seemed - was protected by Bobby Kotick even after being proven to have behaved inappropriately towards one of the women working on the team, and left only after editors from Wall Street Journal put higlighted the matter.
The thing is, Kotick has reportedly tried to protect employees accused of sexual harassment in a similar way before - so it's not a given that other, previously hushed-up cases won't come to light. Let's hope, however, that Treyarch developers are honest with us, and that the next information we hear from them will be about video games.
