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A new Blizzard News post introduces everyone to Makaiya Brown. Brown is Blizzard's Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DE&I) and Development Lead since September 2021. These are all areas in which Blizzard has been severely lacking now for, well, a long time now.
This new post provides some background information on Brown and what she will be doing to improve the areas of representation, accessibility, and player behavior. These are the start, and more significant changes probably won't be seen for quite some time yet.
It all begins with listening. To chart the future of Blizzard, it’s imperative to understand the past. When we have a clear picture of where we are, we can make meaningful changes toward the future. Inspired by what I have learned, we have already begun building a robust learning platform, a system for actionable leadership accountability, reworking our recruitment practices, and more.
Progress is also taking place at multiple levels organically—you have seen many Blizzard development teams making great strides in representation, accessibility, and player behavior recently. And this year to date, 31.5% of our new hires self-identify as women–that’s just the beginning. We are grateful for the efforts of individuals and teams who have immediately embraced our goal of increasing diversity within Blizzard, and we are committed to a continuous focus on improvement in this area.
As a leader in DE&I, seeing this kind of action from individuals en masse in their areas of influence is incredibly moving. It is the kind of work that adds up to real change. Our work at Blizzard is not a matter of putting in a bunch of corporate training programs and calling it a day–this is a large-scale effort at the business, team, and individual levels, that will continue to be iterated upon and evolved to level up the core of who Blizzard is.
Progress is also taking place at multiple levels organically—you have seen many Blizzard development teams making great strides in representation, accessibility, and player behavior recently. And this year to date, 31.5% of our new hires self-identify as women–that’s just the beginning. We are grateful for the efforts of individuals and teams who have immediately embraced our goal of increasing diversity within Blizzard, and we are committed to a continuous focus on improvement in this area.
As a leader in DE&I, seeing this kind of action from individuals en masse in their areas of influence is incredibly moving. It is the kind of work that adds up to real change. Our work at Blizzard is not a matter of putting in a bunch of corporate training programs and calling it a day–this is a large-scale effort at the business, team, and individual levels, that will continue to be iterated upon and evolved to level up the core of who Blizzard is.
