Studio Blizzard (WoW, Overwatch, Diablo 3) is facing major issues following a sexism scandal in summer 2021. With Jen Oneal, they initially found a new leader committed to equality. However, she resigned after just a few months on the job. Oneal was paid less than her co-leader. Now Blizzard presents Jessica Martinez as the next hope as the new number two.
Who has been the boss of Blizzard until now?
- For years, Blizzard was led by Mike Morhaime (54), a likable, softly spoken man who fostered a family atmosphere and was well-liked by fans and employees. He came from the time when Blizzard was independent. Morhaime co-founded the studio in 1991 in Irvine, California
- In 2018, J. Allen Brack, a veteran WoW guy, took over. He once made headlines by saying, people didn’t actually want WoW Classic, they just believed that, but it wasn’t true. After the sexism scandal in summer 2021, Brack had to leave. He was seen as a “representative of the old guard”, who once laughed at BlizzCon about a woman complaining that women in WoW looked like they came from a lingerie catalog.
- Activision installed a dual leadership at Blizzard in August 2021 with Mike Ybara and Jennifer “Jen” Oneal. But after just a few months, Oneal left. Since then, former technical chief Ybara has been leading Blizzard alone within the larger company “Activision Blizzard”, which could soon belong to Microsoft.
Leader left because she had no faith in the company to take equality seriously
Why did Oneal resign so early? Officially, Oneal announced her resignation in November 2021 because she wanted to fight for good causes elsewhere.
In fact, she apparently resigned because she was paid less than her co-chair Ybara. Allegedly, he had a higher salary due to his previous position, and Blizzard did not want to adjust her pay – only when it was too late did they relent.
Oneal apparently felt that Blizzard was not taking its “renewal” as seriously as publicly stated, and stepped down.
This is the new one: Blizzard has now introduced Jessica Martinez as “First Vice President” and “Head of Culture”. She is thus the “number 2” at Blizzard behind Ybara, who was quietly promoted to “President” in February 2022. Previously, he was only “Leader”, whatever that means (via activisionblizzard).
Martinez is expected to work on Blizzard’s “culture”, focusing on the development and promotion of talent. This likely corresponds to an agreement that Blizzard made with an equality committee (via mmorpg.com).
Martinez comes from 14 years at Disney, where she worked as Chief of Human Resources and strategic advisor. Blizzard highlights that she also contributed to culture at Disney.
In addition to Martinez, Activision Blizzard had already appointed Kirsten Hines as the new Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Officer in April.
The controversial head of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, emphasized during the presentation of Hines that they wanted to become the “most inclusive company in the gaming industry”.
We have already extensively addressed Blizzard’s “women problem” on MeinMMO:
Employee says: In 2020, Blizzard had 3 powerful women, all are gone in 2021
