Thirty-seven employees at Activision Blizzard Inc. have exited the company during a months-long sexual harassment probe.

The Wall Street Journal, which has seen documents related to the matter, reported today that 44 more employees have been disciplined over the matter. In July last year, there was a walkout at the company over allegations of rampant sexism and sexual harassment at the offices of the game-making giant.

“Female employees almost universally confirmed that working for defendants was akin to working in a frat house, which invariably involved male employees drinking and subjecting female employees to sexual harassment with no repercussion,” said a lawsuit that was filed at the time.

Speaking on behalf of Activision, Helaine Klasky said the numbers are correct. The Journal had contended that there were some 700 documents relating to the matter, but the release of those documents had been held back because Chief Executive Bobby Kotick feared that would amplify the issue. Klasky said that wasn’t true and she also questioned the whether there were actually 700 documents.

Last year, Kotick had to hire a new president and head of human resources after the people filling those positions walked out of the company just two weeks after the protest. Some staff had come forward and said complaints had been made over the years regarding sexual harassment and the higher-ups at the company had mostly ignored them. In September, the company agreed to an $18 million settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Then in November last year, Kotick himself was accused of abusive behavior, which led to about 1,500 employees signing a petition in favor of his swift removal. The signatories wrote that he didn’t just ignore the pervasive problems at the company but was actively part of the problem.

Nonetheless, Kotick stayed and it indeed seems that many changes were made at the company, including the exit of the problematic employees. A “workplace responsibility committee” was also formed to try to ensure that workplace culture doesn’t return to something resembling a frat house.

Photo: Gordon Tarpley/Wiki