Former Future 2 and Marathon recreation director Christopher Barrett has sued Bungie and Sony over allegations that his former employers “intentionally destroyed Barrett’s fame by falsely, and publicly, insinuating that they had ‘investigated’ Barrett and ‘discovered’ he had engaged in sexual misconduct.” Barrett says in his go well with that the businesses engaged within the “brazen scheme” to keep away from paying him greater than $45 million he was owed beneath his employment settlement, and to “shift blame for and deflect consideration from their huge enterprise failures.”
“This case is about Defendants’ textbook scapegoating of Christopher Barrett, who was, till lately, some of the revered artists within the videogame trade,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants intentionally destroyed Barrett’s fame by falsely, and publicly, insinuating that they had ‘investigated’ Barrett and ‘discovered’ he had engaged in sexual misconduct.
“Defendants didn’t care that none of it was true; that they had blatant motivations for his or her brazen scheme: (i) to keep away from paying Barrett the almost $50 million he’s owed beneath his employment settlement, and (ii) to shift blame for and deflect consideration away from their huge enterprise failures. And to realize these company targets, they have been keen to sacrifice Barrett.”
A protracted-time Bungie worker with credit going again to Fantasy 2 and Halo: Fight Developed, Barrett was extremely regarded amongst Future followers and seen as one of many key drivers behind the Forsaken enlargement that was broadly seen as righting the Future 2 ship when it launched in 2018. In 2023, he was chosen to direct Bungie’s Marathon reboot, however a 12 months later he was unexpectedly changed within the position by former Valorant recreation director Joe Ziegler.
Barrett up to date his X profile to point he’d develop into “government inventive director” at Bungie, however a Bloomberg report in August mentioned he’d been fired in April, a month after his substitute as Marathon director, following an investigation into a number of complaints about inappropriate office habits. A number of sources advised the location that at the very least eight girls had complained about him, and a subsequent investigation discovered that he had referred to as lower-ranking feminine staff enticing, requested them to play Reality or Dare, and talked about his wealth and energy inside Bungie, apparently suggesting that he may assist their careers on the firm.
Within the fast wake of the allegations, Barrett denied any intentional wrongdoing. “I really feel that I’ve all the time carried out myself with integrity and been respectful and supportive of my colleagues, lots of whom I think about my closest mates,” he mentioned in a press release. “I by no means understood my communications to be undesirable and I might have by no means thought they might presumably have made anybody really feel uncomfortable. If anybody ever felt that approach about their interplay with me, I’m actually sorry.”
Now he is pushing again extra forcefully. The lawsuit claims that after a “exceptional trip” over a 25-year profession at Bungie, throughout which he “drove the inventive improvement of a few of the world’s most legendary video video games franchises,” he was faraway from his position by Sony, “performing in live performance with Bungie,” in a “premeditated scheme to terminate Barrett, keep away from paying him the tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} he was owed, and make him a scapegoat for Defendants’ enterprise failures and reputational points.”
Barrett claims he was by no means proven the alleged inappropriate communications throughout an investigative interview with a member of Sony’s authorized staff, nor was he requested whether or not he’d engaged in “inappropriate sexual conduct,” or had retaliated or discriminated in opposition to different staff for rebuffing his advances. As an alternative, he was “requested questions on run-of-the-mill communications” involving routine office interactions.
“Lower than three weeks after this interview, Barrett was notified through Microsoft Groups that he had engaged in unspecified ‘gross misconduct’ and could be terminated for ‘Trigger’,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants refused to elucidate additional and advised him that nothing he may say would make a distinction, regardless of by no means giving him an opportunity to interact with the allegations within the first place.”
The go well with additional claims that Sony and Bungie adopted this up by offering “wildly deceptive statements” to Bloomberg insinuating that he had engaged in sexual misconduct: “Defendants didn’t care if the general public was misled. Certainly, that was the purpose. Barrett’s excessive standing inside the firm and the trade made him the right scapegoat to hide Defendants’ vital cultural issues and enterprise failures.”
Because of Sony and Bungie’s actions, the lawsuit says Barrett “has been the topic of harassment and public ridicule, has misplaced mates {and professional} alternatives, and has seen relationships with household strained. His lifelong dream of launching his personal videogame firm (as soon as inside attain for a revered designer of a number of legendary video games) has been crushed. All within the identify of advancing Defendants’ egocentric company pursuits.”
Barrett is looking for $200 million in his lawsuit, together with $45,579,627 (plus curiosity) owed beneath his employment settlement, one other $45.5 million for violation of Washington state’s Wage Rebate Act, and “not lower than $100 million” in defamation and punitive damages. He is additionally asking for reinstatement as Franchise Recreation Director on Marathon, the place he held previous to his dismissal.
Separate from the lawsuit, it actually bears stating that $45.5 million is a unprecedented amount of cash to be paid to a single developer, even one as extremely positioned as Barrett. Sony spent lavishly to maintain skilled builders round when it acquired Bungie in 2022—roughly $1.2 billion of the $3.6 billion buy worth, within the type of “deferred funds to worker shareholders, conditional upon their continued employment, and different retention incentives,” went towards worker retention—however a lot going to 1 man is astonishing, and it naturally results in questions on what different senior workers at Bungie might need earned as a part of the deal.
I’ve reached out to Sony and Bungie for touch upon the lawsuit, and can replace if I obtain a reply.
