Activision is one of the largest and most successful makers of video games, with titles including Call of Duty and Warcraft among its products. With a market valuation of more than $50bn, it is the second largest US-headquartered game company after Microsoft with revenues of $8.1bn last year.
The incident followed a number of similar alleged incidents of sexual assault and mistreatment of female employees which Kotick has also told directors and other executives he was not aware of. But according to the Journal, some departing employees who were accused of misconduct were praised when they left the company, while co-workers were encouraged to remain silent.
The company is currently being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission into how it has handled reports of misconduct and the California department of fair employment and housing filed a lawsuit over the summer alleging numerous complaints of harassment, discrimination and retaliation had been ignored by the company.
Among those, was a complaint in 2020 by 30 female employees who said that women had been subjected to unwanted touching, demeaning comments, exclusion from important meetings, and unsolicited comments on their appearance.
Kotick, 58, is one of the highest-paid chief executives of a US public company, with a pay package valued at $154m in 2020. After the initial reports of sexual harassment surfaced, Kotick said he would ask the board to cut his compensation to $62,500.
