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Activision CEO Bobby Kotick allegedly wrote Frances Townsend's 'tone deaf' company email

Bobby Kotick allegedly ghost-wrote a response to allegations against Activision Blizzard for Frances Townsend to take credit for.

Donovan Erskine

November 16, 2021 3:25 PM

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Earlier today, The Wall Street Journal published a report that exposed even more of the terrible behavior being exhibited by the leadership at Activision Blizzard over the years. Mainly focused on CEO Bobby Kotick, the report featured several anecdotes from his time running the video game company. One of the most bizarre stories to come out of the report was the fact that the email that Frances Townsend sent to employees addressing the allegations back in July was actually written by Bobby Kotick.

The Wall Street Journal report chronicles a handful of reporters’ investigations into the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, as well as the behavior of leadership afterward. When the news first broke this summer, CCO Frances Townsend sent an email to employees of the company in which she called the allegations a “distorted and untrue picture of our company.” She also stated that many of the stories being told were “factually inaccurate, old, and out of context.” As it turns out, these words were penned by none other than CEO Bobby Kotick himself.

“He directed the email to be sent to employees by Frances Townsend,” the WSJ report states. You may recall that the statement from Townsend - which we now know was actually written by Kotick - was poorly received from both workers and the general public. Employees staged a walkout and demanded that Townsend step down as the Executive Sponsor of ABK Women's Network, which she did.

In a twisted turn of irony, Bobby Kotick publicly called Townsend’s letter “tone deaf” in a letter he published (under his own name this time) a handful of days later. Now, Kotick regrets the move and the fact that Townsend had to take the blame, according to a spokesperson that WSJ chatted with. This same report also revealed that Treyarch co-head Dan Bunting left the company once he caught wind of the publication’s investigation.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_