Activision Blizzard's game characters.

The DeanBeat: Activision Blizzard is losing the PR war

The sex discrimination lawsuit against Activision Blizzard is going to be a real nightmare for all parties involved, and my heart goes out to anyone who is suffering pain as a result of this disaster at one of the biggest game publishers in the industry.

This is the media sideshow of the moment. A war for attention is going on now, with different parties jockeying to control the narrative. And I don’t think Activision Blizzard is winning the PR battle. Each time a part of the crisis has unfolded, the company’s response has generated criticism from multiple directions, including victims on social media and employees concerned about the company’s combative stance. And those responses have reframed the perception of who is really the victim each time.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.