SXSW (South by Southwest) is set to take place starting tomorrow March 11 – March 20. Activision Blizzard was set to be at the event in a panel about user retention in the gaming industry but that is no longer the case. SXSW confirmed that the person set to be at the panel, Activision Blizzard Chief Marketing Officer Fernando Machado, has been replaced by Amazon Prime Gaming Vice President of Marketing Andrea Cutright. SXSW said that the decision to replace Activision Blizzard was because of the ongoing investigation and situation regarding the sexual harassment and workplace misconduct allegations that were filed in lawsuit by the state of California last year.
“Given the ongoing and unfolding nature around the sexual harassment accusations being covered up at the executive levels of Activision, we decided it was best to not have high-profile speakers from Activision present at SXSW this year,” said Linda Park, VP of Communications at SXSW.
Following the lawsuit, a new report revealed that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick was aware of the allegations. This led to criticism from the video game industry including Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, and the Entertainment Software Association. Earlier this year, in a surprise announcement, Microsoft announced that it had officially purchased Activision Blizzard.
While Activision Blizzard won’t be making an appearance at SXSW, the company will still be at the Game Developers’ Conference. GDC spokesperson Katie Stern said that while “reports of systemic misconduct and toxicity at Activision Blizzard have been deeply upsetting,” the Conference sought to “uplift these individual developers, who have no record of wrongdoing, and to not punish them because of their association with poor leadership.”
The SXSW Gaming Awards will take place on Saturday, March 12 and will be hosted by SyFy Stars Jana Morrison and Samantha Aucoin.