This year has been littered with layoffs in the gaming industry and doesn’t seem to have an end in the near future. However, an infamous layoffs from earlier this year, former Bungie developer Chris Barrett, is seeking to sue Sony and Bungie for an alleged $45 million dollars that Barrett was due from the companies.
Barrett’s suit alleges that the companies “deliberately destroyed Barrett’s reputation by falsely, and publicly, insinuating they had ‘investigated’ Barrett and ‘found’ he had engaged in sexual misconduct. Defendants did not care that none of it was true; they had blatant motivations for their brazen scheme.”
The suit also alleges that the firing was supposed to “shift blame for and deflect attention away from their massive business failures. And to achieve those corporate objectives, they were willing to sacrifice Barrett.”
Barrett’s suit also claims that Sony’s $3.6 Billion acquisition of Bungie “has been a disaster.” The suit said Bungie struggled to meet financial targets, has fallen behind on deadlines, and Marathon has been the subject of intense public criticism. “By terminating Barrett for cause, Defendants could save $45 million and pin the Marathon issues on Barrett in one fell swoop.”
However, it’s worth noting that Bloomberg interviewed former employees about Barrett’s misconduct and were quoted saying:
Barrett was never asked whether he had ever engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct, whether he ever sent inappropriate sexual or pornographic materials to a co-worker, or whether he ever retaliated against a co-worker for rebuffing his advances or discriminated against a female colleague on the basis of her sex. Barrett was not asked those questions because Barrett did not engage in, and has not been accused of, any such conduct.
“One of Bungie’s founding members made frequent sexist and racist comments in group settings. For example, in a leadership meeting, he joked that “a woman’s place is barefoot and pregnant” (or words to that effect). Barrett reprimanded him over email, but he faced no consequences.” the lawsuit alleged.
Sony and Bungie have yet to make any public statements on the suit.