Activision Blizzard has agreed to pay about $50 million as part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought against the game designer which allege the company engaged in a pattern of discrimination against female employees which included underpaying them and denying them promotion opportunities.

The company had been sued by the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), following a two-year investigation of allegations that the company routinely underpaid and did not promote employees if they were female, and that it had condoned sexual harassment.

As part of the settlement the company agreed to take additional steps to ensure fair pay and promotion practices and to recompense female employees and contract workers monetarily who were employed between the 12th of October and the 31st of December as part of the settlement, which will still require a court’s approval.

In a statement on Friday, the videogame-maker said, “In the settlement agreement, the CRD expressly acknowledged that ‘no court or independent investigation has substantiated any allegations that there has been systemic or widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard’.”

The company also noted that at no time did any investigation find that its board or chief executives acted inappropriately in handling any cases of workplace misconduct.

In October, Activision was purchased by Microsoft in a deal worth almost $69 billion. In 2021, the company had agreed to pay as much as $18 million to settle a similar suit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.