Vjeran Pavic is a reporter for The Verge.
Sony and Microsoft are semi-privately expressing their distress after a Wall Street Journal report said that the company's CEO Bobby Kotick was involved in harassment and abusive behavior. According to a new report, Microsoft boss Phil Spencer has told his staff that he was "disturbed and deeply troubled" by the events at the company, and that Microsoft is "evaluating all aspects of our relationship with the company."
A Microsoft spokesman tells The Verge that the report is accurate. Microsoft shared a generic, completely unrelated statement about how Microsoft wants a "welcoming and inclusive environment for all of our employees at Xbox."
Jim Ryan told employees yesterday that the company had expressed deep concern with the situation, and that they did not believe the statements of response to address the situation.
If Sony and Microsoft were to publicly call out the situation at Activision, it would carry a lot more weight, but it is not clear if either company is interested in taking any concrete actions yet. Both console makers rely on the power of the publisher to provide new big-budget games for their consoles.
Microsoft and Sony want to be seen as committed to a less toxic video game industry, and Phil Spencer has made fighting toxicity part of his public brand. Spencer wrote a memo about the behavior that has no place in the industry.
The board of directors has shown their faith in Bobby Kotick, despite the fact that over 500 employees have signed a petition to remove him from the company.
The board of directors of The Verge's parent company is chaired by a man who is also on the board of directors of a different company.
Microsoft confirmed that the report is accurate.
