Details of Blizzard developers’ “Cosby Suite” comes as employees strike

A damning Kotaku report has today detailed a BlizzCon hotel room dubbed as the “Cosby Suite” on the very same day Activision Blizzard employees have walked out of their jobs in protest of alleged discrimination and harrassment of women.

According to Kotaku’s report, the “Cosby Suite” was the alleged nickname of Alex Afrasiabi, one of only two people specifically named in a lawsuit filed by the Californian Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The other named party is none other than former Blizzard President J. Allen Brack.

“During a company event (an annual convention called Blizz Con [sic]) Afrasiabi would hit on female employees, telling him [sic] he wanted to marry them, attempting to kiss them, and putting his arms around them,” a portion of the lawsuit reads. “This was in plain view of other male employees, including supervisors, who had to intervene and pull him off female employees. Afrasiabi was so known to engage in harassment of females that his suite was nicknamed the ‘Crosby Suite’ [sic] after alleged rapist Bill Crosby [sic].”

Kotaku has found screenshots and Facebook posts detailing the “Cosby Suite”, some with comments from Afrasiabi and other Blizzard employees, current and former. Kotaku reports that a member of Blizzard HR was seen commenting on posts as well.

Some sources have told Kotaku that the term “Cosby Suite” was in reference to the comedian’s ugly “Cosby Sweaters” and wasn’t meant to carry sexual connotations. Photos from 2013 largely fuel Kotaku’s report; the first allegations of Cosby’s sexual misconduct began in 2005 before a deluge of others followed in 2014 and 2015.

You can read Kotaku’s full report here (the image at the top of this post has also comes from that report).

Activision Blizzard employees have walked out of their California-based campus today between 10 am and 2 pm Pacific Time in protest of the allegations made in the Californian Department of Fair Employment and Housing’s lawsuit.