Former Destiny 2 and Marathon director is suing Sony and Bungie for $200 million over alleged wrongful dismissal

Gaming IndustryFormer Destiny 2 and Marathon director is suing Sony and Bungie for $200 million over alleged wrongful dismissalWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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UKRAINE - 2022/02/02: In this photo illustration, a Bungie Inc. logo of a video game developer is seen on a smartphone screen and PlayStation (PS) logo in the background. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“Defendants did not care that none of it was true; they had blatant motivations for their brazen scheme: (i) to avoid paying Barrett the nearly $50 million he is owed under his employment agreement, and (ii) 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 updated his X profile to indicate he’d become “executive creative director” at Bungie, but a Bloomberg report in August said he’d beenfired in April, a month after his replacement as Marathon director, following an investigation into multiple complaints about inappropriate workplace behavior. Multiple sources told the site that at least eight women had complained about him, and a subsequent investigation found that he had called lower-ranking female employees attractive, asked them to play Truth or Dare, and talked about his wealth and power within Bungie, apparently suggesting that he could help their careers at the company.

In the immediate wake of the allegations, Barrett denied any intentional wrongdoing. “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,” he said in a statement. “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.”

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(Image credit: Christopher Barrett (Twitter))

Barrett claims he was never shown the alleged inappropriate communications during an investigative interview with a member of Sony’s legal team, nor was he asked whether he’d engaged in “inappropriate sexual conduct,” or had retaliated or discriminated against other employees for rebuffing his advances. Instead, he was “asked questions about run-of-the-mill communications” involving routine workplace interactions.

“Less than three weeks after this interview, Barrett was notified via Microsoft Teams that he had engaged in unspecified ‘gross misconduct’ and would be terminated for ‘Cause’,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants refused to explain further and told him that nothing he could say would make a difference, despite never giving him a chance to engage with the allegations in the first place.”

As a result of Sony and Bungie’s actions, the lawsuit says Barrett “has been the subject of harassment and public ridicule, has lost friends and professional opportunities, and has seen relationships with family strained. His lifelong dream of launching his own videogame company (once within reach for a respected designer of multiple legendary games) has been crushed. All in the name of advancing Defendants’ selfish corporate interests.”

Barrett is seeking $200 million in his lawsuit, including $45,579,627 (plus interest) owed under his employment agreement, another $45.5 million for violation of Washington state’s Wage Rebate Act, and “not less than $100 million” in defamation and punitive damages. He’s also asking for reinstatement as Franchise Game Director on Marathon, the position he held prior to his dismissal.

Separate from the lawsuit, it really bears stating that $45.5 million is an extraordinary amount of money to be paid to a single developer, even one as highly placed as Barrett. Sony spent lavishly to keep experienced developers around when it acquired Bungie in 2022—roughly $1.2 billion of the $3.6 billion purchase price, in the form of “deferred payments to employee shareholders, conditional upon their continued employment, and other retention incentives,” went towardemployee retention—but so much going to one guy is astonishing, and it naturally leads to questions about what other senior staff at Bungie might have earned as part of the deal.

I’ve reached out to Sony and Bungie for comment on the lawsuit, and will update if I receive a reply.

TOPICSBungie

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PRODUCTSDestiny 2Marathon

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