Blizzard chief promises to 'rebuild trust' ahead of Microsoft takeover

engadget.com:

Blizzard Entertainment boss Mike Ybarra has promised in a blog post to "rebuild your trust" in the studio, marking his first comments since Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of Blizzard Activision. The developer of blockbuster titles like World of Warcraft and Overwatch has been under pressure since it was sued by the state of California, which accused it of being a "breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women."

Ybarra promised new measures to improve the company's culture, starting with tying executive and management compensation to "our overall success in creating a safe, inclusive and creative work environment at Blizzard," he said. He also outlined new roles designed to address discrimination and other issues, including: 

"A Culture leader who will help us maintain the best aspects of what we have today, and change and evolve where needed to ensure everyone brings their best self to Blizzard; a new organizational leader for Human Resources who will build trust, empower our teams, and help foster a safe, positive work environment for everyone; [and] a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) leader solely focused on our progress across multiple efforts in this area."

He said the company has tripled the size of its compliance and investigation teams, shared representation data internally, and created an "upward feedback program" to help employees evaluate managers. He didn't share representation data in the blog, but Activision Blizzard's workforce is reportedly around 80 percent male. 

Microsoft announced the acquisition while Blizzard Activision was at a point of weakness due to the misconduct scandal, as Bloomberg noted. Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer acknowledged the issues with the studio,