Following Chris Barrett having been changed as director of the Marathon reboot earlier this 12 months, a brand new report is claming that the veteran developer was fired from Bungie following an inner investigation into misconduct.
In accordance with Bloomberg, Barrett was let go by the studio this spring following allegations of inappropriate behaviour from “not less than eight” feminine staff on the firm.
The report alleges that Barrett befriended ladies from completely different departments on the studio, and despatched them a “barrage of textual content messages that blurred the traces between skilled and private.”
It cites Bungie’s investigation as having discovered that the developer “known as lower-level feminine staff engaging, requested them to play truth-or-dare and made references to his wealth and energy throughout the studio, suggesting that he may assist advance their careers.” Bloomberg additionally claims that workers at Bungie weren’t made conscious of the scenario behind Barrett’s departure, with some builders on the Marathon staff being mentioned to have been advised he was “on a sabbatical”, and later discovered that his firm accounts had been disabled.
“I really feel that I’ve all the time carried out myself with integrity and been respectful and supportive of my colleagues, a lot of whom I take into account my closest associates,” Barrett mentioned in a starement to Bloomberg, “I by no means understood my communications to be undesirable and I might have by no means thought they may presumably have made anybody really feel uncomfortable. If anybody ever felt that approach about their interplay with me, I’m actually sorry.”
In the meantime, a spokesperson for Sony Interactive Leisure advised the publication that it takes “all complaints of misconduct very significantly”, including that its coverage is to analyze any complaints “promptly”, after which take motion primarily based on the findings of mentioned investigation.
Former Valorant sport director Joe Ziegler confirmed that he’d taken over that very same place on Marathon again in March, with a report from IGN citing the change as having come amid a shakeup in Bungie’s inventive management. Bungie introduced on the finish of July that it was shedding 220 workers, and cited Marathon – alongside Future 2 – as one of many developer’s two massive focuses at present, with a must “guarantee each tasks ship on the high quality our gamers count on and deserve” being pressured as key by CEO Pete Parsons.
