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Family of suicide victim suing Activision Blizzard

Family of suicide victim suing Activision Blizzard

Games publishing giant Activision Blizzard is facing yet another lawsuit, this time from the family of an employee who allegedly killed themselves due to the actions of her manager.

That's according to The Washington Post, which reports that the family has claimed that a significant factor in her taking her own life was her being sexually harassed by her boss. The lawsuit also claims that said boss lied to police and covered up evidence of the sexual relationship they had.

Activision Blizzard is also accused of holding up the investigation in not releasing the employee's company laptop and mobile phone as they have been wiped. The publisher has also denied access to the manager's technology, too.

Word that a female member of staff had committed suicide in part due to sexual harassment by her boss initially came out in the Department for Fair Employment and Housing's lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. At the time, the firm denied that this had anything to do with the working culture at the Call of Duty giant.

"We will address the complaint through the legal process as appropriate, and out of respect for the family we have no further comment at this time," an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told the Post as part of its most recent article.

 


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.