Diablo 4 director, lead designer fired amid gender discrimination lawsuit

As first reported by Kotaku and confirmed to Kotaku by Activision Blizzard, director of Diablo 4 Luis Barriga, lead level designer Jesse McCree, and World of Warcraft Designer Jonathon LeCraft are no longer with Activision Blizzard, in the wake of the gender discrimination allegations targetted at Activision Blizzard by the State of California.

McCree and LeCraft were featured in the now-infamous Cosby Suite photo, also revealed first by Kotaku, which depicted a group of Activision Blizzard male employees posing with a picture of Bill Cosby inside a former Blizzard employee Alex Afrasiabi's hotel suite at Pax in 2013.

The room was reportedly dubbed the "Cosby Suite" where Blizzard developers allegedly gathered to engage in sexual conversations about women and get drunk at the conference.

The suite was mentioned in the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) legal complaint against the company which alleged that, among other things, Blizzard created and maintained a toxic work environment that excluded and harmed women and was more akin to a dangerous college frat than a professional workplace.

In a section addressing Afrasiabi's harassment of female employees, the DFEH alleged that "Afrasiabi was so known to engage in harassment of females that his suite was nicknamed the "Cosby Suite" after alleged rapist Bill Cosby.

An Activision Blizzard spokesperson told Kotaku in a statement, "We have a deep, talented roster of developers already in place and new leaders have been assigned where appropriate. We are confident in our ability to continue progress, deliver amazing experiences to our players, and move forward to ensure a safe, productive work environment for all."

The departure of these three developers follows last week's departure of the CEO J. Allen Brack, and his replacement with Jen O'Neal and Mike Ybarra as the new co-leaders of Blizzard.