Former ‘Destiny 2’ And ‘Marathon’ Reboot Director Sues Bungie And Sony For Breach Of Contract And Defamation, Claims He Was Used As A “Scapegoat” For “Their Own Public #MeToo Problems”
Ex-Bungie game director Christopher Barrett is suing both his former employer and their parent company Sony on the grounds that his firing from the Destiny 2 studio was an unjust act due to the fact that, according to him, the #MeToo accusations that resulted in his departure were and are completely false.
The firing in question occurred in March of this year, as confirmed by the sudden announcement that Barrett, whose studio credits include work on the entirety of Bungie’s Halo output and both Destiny games, was being replaced as the director of the upcoming Marathon reboot by its current director, former Valorant director Joe Ziegler.
At the time, neither Bungie nor Barrett declined to provide any exact details as to the circumstances of the developer’s firing.
Though both parties would remain silent for the next few months, in August 2024, a number of Bungie employees spoke to Bloomberg‘s Jason Schreierand revealed that the reason for Barett’s exit was his being “accused by several female employees of inappropriate behavior”.
“Barrett was terminated following an internal investigation in which at least eight female employees raised complaints earlier this year that he had behaved inappropriately toward them, according to eight people, including multiple women who reported Barrett as well as other Bungie employees who were either involved in the investigation or spoke to the women involved,” recalled Schreier of his sources’ information. “The investigation found that Barrett called lower-level female employees attractive, asked them to play truth-or-dare and made references to his wealth and power within the studio, suggesting that he could help advance their careers, according to two people familiar with the case.”
According to Schreier’s sources, “Barrett would befriend women at the studio in various departments and then send them a barrage of text messages that blurred the lines between professional and personal. In interviews, multiple women who reported Barrett said the advances were unwanted and that they felt uncomfortable because Barrett was significantly more powerful than they were at the company. Texts reviewed by Bloomberg News included flirtatious messages from Barrett and requests to hang out with the women involved.”
Offering a personal statement on the situation, Barrett told Schreier, “I feel that I have always conducted myself with integrity and been respectful and supportive of my colleagues, many of whom I consider my closest friends. I never understood my communications to be unwanted and I would have never thought they could possibly have made anyone feel uncomfortable. If anyone ever felt that way about their interaction with me, I am truly sorry.”
To this end and in taking his adamant belief in his innocence to its logical conclusion, roughly four months after Bloomberg’s report, Barrett has now filed a lawsuit with the Delaware Court of Chancery against Bungie and Sony, therein alleging that the two companies had “deliberately destroyed Barrett’s reputation by falsely, and publicly, insinuating that they had ‘investigated’ Barrett and ‘found’ he had engaged in sexual misconduct’.”
According to the director, at various points throughout the saga of Barrett’s firing, both Bungie and Sony engaged in “acts [that] were all part of a premeditated scheme to terminate [him], avoid paying him the tens of millions of dollars he was owed, and make him a scapegoat for [their] business failures and reputational issues,” these latter two categories respectively including such examples as the mass drop-off of Destiny 2 players across 2023–2024 and a 2021 report alleging that Bungie itself had a massive culture of “sexism”.
These acts included being told not to bring counsel to an internal company meeting relating to said investigations, being denied the opportunity to see the uncouth text messages he was accused of sending, and being refused any details as to the specific instances of “gross misconduct” Bungie cited as the reason for his firing.
Further, the former dev asserts that the studio then gave “wildly misleading statements to Bloomberg designed to 1) deflect blame for Sony’s poorly performing $3.6 Billion acquisition of Bungie and delays in video game production by casting shade on [him] for his role on Marathon and 2) shift blame for their own public #MeToo problems by falsely insinuating that the accusations of severe misdconduct had been directed at Barrett, when they had not.”
Filing this lawsuit in an attempt “to recover tens of millions of dollars he is owed for stock he earned through twenty-five years of hard work, to recover for the retaliation he has suffered, to restore his hard-earned reputation, and to be compensated for the falsehoods knowingly and maliciously spread about him”, Barrett is bringing a total of seven counts against Bungie and Sony, including Breach of Contract, Constructive Dismissal, Defamation, Defamation by Implication, Violation of Washington’s Wage Rebate Act (its provisions aimed at protecting employees within the state from having their wages wrongfully withheld), Interference with his exercising of the parental leave rights he was entitled to under the Family Medical Leave Act, and Retaliation against him for taking said leave.
In relief of these grievances, Barrett is seeking roughly $91,159,254 in damages plus interest, back pay, and attorney’s fees, as well as “any other equitable and monetary relief as may be just and appropriate.”
As of writing, Bungie has yet to offer a public response to Barrett’s lawsuit.
More About:Video Game News
Read this Next
