Activision Blizzard hit with new sexual harassment and misconduct lawsuit
CW: This article contains detailed allegations of sexual harassment
Activision Blizzard has been hit with another lawsuit littered with allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct.
The news comes as the company attempts to address a cultural crisis that arose when serious allegations of misconduct and harassment were made public, prompting investigations into the Call of Duty publisher by government agencies such as the DFEH and SEC.
As reported by Kotaku, the latest suit was filed in Los Angeles by an anonymous former employee and is directed at the company itself and former senior product manager, Miguel Vega.
The complaint, which refers to the unnamed former employee as Ms. Jane Doe, alleges that Activision Blizzard's "failure to curb sexist and harassing conduct emboldened manager Miguel Vega to abuse, belittle and insult Ms. Doe by making comments to her about oral sex, masturbation and orgasms, threatening her job if she would not consent to sex, mocking her breasts, and commenting on other female employees' attractiveness."
The suit also alleges that Vega threatened to expose a compromising photograph of Ms. Doe.
According to the suit, Ms. Doe and Vega first met in 2009 or 2010 at a game night before she joined Activision Blizzard. It states the two "soon formed a virtual friendship and she regrettably sent him compromising photos of herself."
Ms. Doe states their friendship ended in 2011 after she met her future husband, but that Vega helped her join Activision Blizzard as an independent contractor in 2016, which eventually turned in to a full-time role within the Player Support department.
Detailing some of her experiences at the company between 2016 and 2021, Ms. Doe claims she was "repeatedly groped" by Vega,
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