According to a new report by IGN, developer Deck Nine has gone through a turbulent time recently with multiple employees alleging that management has long let a toxic work culture fester at the studio with the C-suite allegedly protecting abusive leaders, allegedly encouraged crunch, and allegedly allowed bullying of individuals advocating internally for more authentic representation in Life is Strange.

This all came about following a few developers allegedly finding references to hidden nazi symbols while working on the next entry into the Life is Strange franchise.

While working on their next title, some developers allegedly noticed a reference to the number 88 which is a white supremacist numerical code for “Heil Hitler.” The letter H is the eighth letter in the alphabet. The number can be found and is used throughout the entire white supremacist movement. That’s not the only thing that was allegedly found. There were also allegedly references to the racist Tyrone meme, the number 18 which is the code for “Adolf Hitler,”  and the Hagal rune.

The developers expected these things to be immediately removed and thoroughly investigated but allegedly nothing came of it.

As Deck Nine get ready to formally announce its next title and struggle to secure other projects, it’s reported that leadership is facing growing internal discontent from those allegedly harmed by its inaction. The developers of Life is Strange love and believe in the series but many of them are struggling to come to terms with the values the games promote with the culture in which they are made.

Developers say that crunch on Life is Strange: True Colors was a direct result of the relationship between Deck Nine and Square Enix. One developer says that they worked 70-80 hours a week for an entire month. There were efforts to improve workloads but allegedly overtime never fully vanished. Another developer claimed taking on weeks of crunch to protect other team members, saying it was “never mandated” but that there was always too much to get done in the allotted time.

Several people told IGN they felt that Square Enix sold Life is Strange to the lowest bidder. This was reflected in production schedules with tight deadlines and small budgets. Multiple people were aware that producers were being forced by their bosses and Square Enix to rework production schedules so it looked like every milestone fit within a very limited development time frame, despite arguments that it was impossible.

One called Square Enix – and specifically, Square Enix London, who Deck Nine worked with directly – “bullies.” Another source elaborated, “Square always put a lot of pressure on our people, so that toxicity started to bleed into our environment too.”

Other developers expressed frustration against Square Enix for being allegedly too hands-on with the script. Sources said that Square Enix seemed oddly reluctant or outright hostile to the diverse themes and ideas that Life is Strange fans love. Multiple people recalled an incident during True Colors’ development where they claim Square Enix told multiple developers it didn’t want Life Is Strange to be thought of as the “gay game.”

There’s a lot of press out there praising True Colors for having the first bisexual lead in a Life Is Strange game,” said Mallory Littleton, a narrative designer who worked at Deck Nine on multiple Life Is Strange titles. “Even in our press guides from Square Enix, all the way up until , we were not to say anything about Alex’s sexuality, period, at all. And then they did the advance copies, and all of these reviews came out saying how amazing it was to finally see an explicitly bi protagonist, and after that, Square was like, just kidding, Alex is absolutely, canonically, 100% bisexual.”

Some people who spoke laid the blame at Deck Nine management. According to them, the managers at Deck Nine allegedly never seemed willing to ask Square Enix for more time or push back on notes the developers disagreed with. Many developers said Deck Nine management seemed unprepared for dealing with a game with “serious” themes, especially when it comes to thoughtful portrayals of diverse individuals.

Alongside crunch, many developers complained about low pay and alleged difficulty getting promotions. Many people also expressed frustration that management allegedly allowed numerous instances of toxic behavior to go unaddressed for months on end including a number of alleged specific accounts of sexual harassment, bullying, transphobia, and otherwise toxic work culture that multiple individuals corroborated.

Every woman IGN spoke to had at least one story of allegedly being treated poorly or harassed during her time there, and almost all said they felt they had to fight exceptionally hard to receive raises or promotions.

“We’re usually treated as a marketing or PR asset, that’s how higher ups often talked about us,” said Madeleine Tate, a former producer at Deck Nine on Life Is Strange. “Every promotion where a woman got promoted took a team effort, everyone suggesting them, sending emails, both men and women, dozens just trying to get them promoted.”

The issues affected and impacted a number of departments and teams but the narrative team was particularly impacted. Those who spoke to IGN within and outside of the narrative team recalled the group allegedly dealing with sexism, harassment, bullying, transphobia, microaggressions, alienation, and other toxic behavior from those outside the department.

To get the full picture, you can check out the full report.

I spoke to over a dozen current and former devs at Life Is Strange studio Deck Nine about how leaders have long enabled toxic culture to fester, including crunch, problematic leads, and months of inaction when hate speech was found in their latest game.https://t.co/npEVgJxQRP

— Rebekah Valentine (@duckvalentine) April 5, 2024

In response to the allegations that were in the report Deck Nine released a statement saying:

“At Deck Nine, telling diverse and deeply human stories is part of our DNA and it’s every creative individual at the studio who helps make them compelling, relatable, and meaningful for our dedicated community.

We are a small, diverse, and incredibly talented team, which is reflected in the rich characters and intimate storylines of the games we make. Our hiring and promotion practices prioritize a diverse culture and workforce because of the experiences we are creating—and because it’s the right thing to do. We are proud to be a studio that employs a diverse team that goes above and beyond industry norms.

Deck Nine is an independently owned studio, and we strive to compensate all our employees fairly. We recently made salary adjustments as we shifted to remote work and continue to offer abundant opportunities for upward mobility to all employees.

We, as with countless other studios in the games industry, are constantly working to build in better practices throughout development to avoid crunch.

Employee Conduct:

We place the utmost importance on the welfare of every employee at Deck Nine. We have strict conduct policies in place, and as soon as allegations or issues are reported to HR, they are confidentially investigated, assessed, and addressed with the parties involved as quickly and effectively as possible. It is always our intention to maintain a positive, sustainable, and successful studio by putting our people first.

We have always conducted thorough internal investigations if any issues arise, and when a situation warrants it, we will bring in external parties to consult with us. We will soon be integrating new tools into our development pipeline to ensure all terms, imagery, or symbols created in our games – including any and all background content – receive additional vetting for potentially offensive or hateful expressions and are properly flagged and assessed to avoid inadvertent inclusion. We are also rolling out formal anti-hate speech training and processes to better inform and give team members actionable resources to remain vigilant as a collective studio.

Collaborating with Partners:

Storytelling is a collaborative process, and we work closely with all of our partners throughout development to deliver a narrative experience true to the pillars of a product that we are all proud of. As is often the case in the creative process, some ideas make the final cut, and some do not. We remain committed to championing diversity and telling stories from historically underrepresented groups in games.”