One has to wonder when the levy that’s holding back a tide of consequences for Activision Blizzard and its management will break.

For nearly a year now lawsuits and allegations have been levelled against the organisation and at this stage, it really feels like Activision Blizzard will be spending a lot of time tied-up in litigation.

The latest lawsuit filed against the developer / publisher comes from the New York City Employees’ Retirement system which manages pension funds for city workers including teachers, police officers and fire fighters. According to Axios, the group owns Activision Blizzard stock and it believes the actions of the company have hurt its value.

The organisation said in the lawsuit that it served a demand to inspect Activision Blizzard’s books in October 2021 “in connection with the Board’s failure to maintain a safe and non-discrimantory working environment for its (specifically minority and female) employees, and failure to take action in response to repeated, grave allegations of misconduct, discrimination, and harassment by Activision’s senior executives”.

The organisation says that due to the misconduct at the firm has hurt the share price and ultimately the price Microsoft would have to pay for the acquisition.

But the real target in this lawsuit appears to be none other than Activision Blizzard chief executive officer, Bobby Kotick.

The lawsuit alleges that Kotick was aware of the hostile work environment his firm was creating but did nothing to address the misconduct that was taking place. The lawsuit alleges that now form chief technology officer at Activision Blizzard, Ben Kilgore, was accused of misconduct. In response, the game maker allegedly promoted him and Kilgore is alleged to have continued to act inappropriately with female employees.

The lawsuit boils down to the New York City Employees’ Retirement System claiming that Kotick is unfit to negotiate a deal with Microsoft.

“The speed with which Kotick moved to not just set an offer ceiling, but to execute an agreement, was to be expected. Not only did the Merger offer Kotick and his fellow directors a means to escape liability for their egregious breaches of fiduciary duty, but it also offered Kotick the chance to realize substantial nonratable benefits,” reads the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is intended to force Activision Blizzard to produce its books and records so that the New York City Employees’ Retirement System can investigate potential wrong-doing by management and Kotick.

Will this lawsuit be successful? On that we’re not sure but given that 98 percent of Activision Blizzard stockholders voted in favour of the transaction with Microsoft, the New York City Employees’ Retirement System has a tough argument ahead of it.

As we said though, the lawsuits and allegations keep piling up but it really is starting to look like Kotick and his board of directors are untouchable.