Back in November, Sony’s PlayStation division was hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination and pay disparity. It was a major step for those agitating for fairer working conditions in the company, but largely got lost among all the noise of the myriad scandals surrounding Activision Blizzard at the time.
Sony may have recently moved for a dismissal of the case, however, according to Axios reporter Stephen Totilo. In a seemingly innocuous comment in the opening to today’s Axios Gaming newsletter, written by Totilo and Megan Farokhmanesh, he mentions that the company had asked a court to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that plaintiff Emma Majo “failed to cite enough facts to have a case.” This is despite the dozen or so claims, both personal and class-wide, made in the 40-page lawsuit, with diversity-related statistics backing up anecdotal experience.
It isn’t unusual for large companies to try and mitigate or dismiss legal claims altogether rather than fight them in the courts. Just look at Activision Blizzard’s ongoing fight to de-fang the lawsuit levelled against it by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, by attempting to narrow the scope of the suit. Then again, perhaps it’s better to focus on the Sony lawsuit for now, lest Majo’s case against PlayStation be overshadowed once again.
