Unfortunately....they can't pull a Bungie and break free of Activision. Because they are Activision.They should have revoked all the bans like Jeff Kaplan said. It's contradictory to call your games and your company a safe space for speech while punishing people for speaking out against oppressive governments.
I understand that JAB is nothing more than a figurehead. He doesn't have a board seat and he's not the CEO. Mike Morhaime appeared to actually have some power and commanded a board seat. It's very clear that all of this came directly from the board. I'm not trying to absolve Blizzard's leadership, but aside from quitting in protest (which I personally do not expect anyone to do, even if I do respect the act if it happens), no one within their leadership team has the power to say anything else.
I guess it's really semantics who you want to put this on. You can blame Blizzard as a subsidiary of Activision, but really this is on Activision's board for being spineless. I still cancelled my wow sub and have no intention of buying blizzard games in the near future (becoming free of Activision and doing a complete 180 might get me to consider it).
There was only like 15-20 protesters at Blizzcon (outside the venue)
JaB basically told the audience to go engage with those people and have discourse. That's the best he can do.
I'm curious to know how Morheim would have handled it or Metzen if he was still there