Chris Barrett was one of many outstanding builders who was fired in March 2024 within the wake of the Me Too scandals that hit the sport trade.
But Barrett, a sport artist, filed a lawsuit right now towards his former employers Sony Interactive Entertainment and Bungie, alleging they fired him to keep away from giving him a $45 million cost he mentioned he was entitled to. We have requested Sony/Bungie for remark.
Barrett’s lawsuit mentioned the defendants ” intentionally destroyed Barrett’s status by falsely, and publicly, insinuating they’d ‘investigated’ Barrett and ‘discovered’ he had engaged in sexual misconduct. Defendants didn’t care that none of it was true; they’d blatant motivations for his or her brazen scheme.” And that was the payout he mentioned he was entitled to underneath his employment settlement.
The lawsuit went on to say the businesses had been motivated by a have to “shift blame for and deflect consideration away from their huge enterprise failures. And to attain these company targets, they had been keen to sacrifice Barrett.”
While that sounds despicable, Barrett was accused of crossing the road between skilled and private habits. In the course of its journalistic investigation of the Me Too scandal, Bloomberg interviewed eight folks, together with a number of girls who reported Barrett, in addition to different Bungie staff who had been both concerned within the investigation or spoke to the ladies concerned.
A protracted profession in wreck
Barrett began his profession within the videogame trade by creating maps and ranges for the sport Myth, without spending a dime, as a fan, at night time, after working his day job in New York, the lawsuit mentioned. Bungie, the maker of Myth, recruited Barrett and for the following twenty-five years, Bungie and Barrett had a outstanding trip.
The swimsuit mentioned “Barrett drove the inventive improvement of a number of the world’s most legendary video video games franchises, together with Halo and Destiny (the latter of which has been nominated for Best Ongoing Game on the 2024 Game Awards), acquired a priceless fairness curiosity in Bungie, and have become the driving drive and lead designer for Bungie’s most vital new gaming undertaking, Marathon.”
That trip ended abruptly in 2024 when Sony, which had acquired Bungie for $3.6 Billion in 2022, appearing in live performance with Bungie, eliminated Barrett from his place in command of growing Marathon after which baselessly fired him, allegedly for “trigger”, following a supposed investigation, the lawsuit mentioned.
Barrett alleges he was informed about an investigation into his habits when he was on a psychological well being depart. He alleges he attended the “interview” assembly with Sony’s authorized division however was not suggested to carry authorized counse, and he mentioned he was by no means proven any of the textual content messages.
“Barrett was by no means requested whether or not he had ever engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct, whether or not he ever despatched inappropriate sexual or pornographic supplies to a co-worker, or whether or not he ever retaliated towards a co-worker for rebuffing his advances or discriminated towards a feminine colleague on the premise of her intercourse. Barrett was not requested these questions as a result of Barrett didn’t have interaction in, and has not been accused of, any such conduct,” the lawsuit alleged.
Less than three weeks after this interview, Barrett was notified by way of Microsoft Teams that he had engaged in unspecified “gross misconduct” and can be terminated for “Cause”. Defendants refused to clarify additional and informed him that nothing he might say would make a distinction, regardless of by no means giving him an opportunity to have interaction with the allegations within the first place, the lawsuit mentioned.
The trigger was a obscure violation of Bungie’s harassment coverage, the lawsuit mentioned.
“They then accomplished the Machiavellian trifecta by offering wildly deceptive statements to Bloomberg designed to: (i) deflect blame for Sony’s poorly performing $3.6 Billion acquisition of Bungie and delays in online game manufacturing by casting shade on Barrett for his position on Marathon and (ii) shift blame for their very own public #MeToo issues by falsely insinuating that the accusations of extreme misconduct had been directed at Barrett, after they had not,” the lawsuit mentioned.
The lawsuit additionally mentioned “Sony’s $3.6 Billion acquisition of Bungie has been a catastrophe.” It mentioned Bungie has struggled to satisfy monetary targets, has fallen behind on deadlines, and Marathon (a centerpiece of the transaction) has been the topic of intense public criticism. By terminating Barrett for Cause, Defendants might save $45 million and pin the Marathon points on Barrett in a single fell swoop.
Bungie’s struggles mustn’t have been a shock, the lawsuit continued. Before the Sony acquisition, Bungie was in a troublesome monetary place. Destiny, the online game franchise accountable for almost all of Bungie’s revenues, was not performing in addition to Bungie had hoped. Yet, Bungie was in a position to strike a cope with Sony that enabled Bungie administration to retain sure management post-acquisition. When Bungie thereafter underdelivered, with Marathon delayed and Bungie’s senior management in disarray, and with Sony trying to maintain Bungie management accountable, Bungie provided Barrett (who had at all times been on the
artistic aspect, and by no means energetic in enterprise administration) as a sacrifice, the lawsuit mentioned.
And the lawsuit mentioned previous to Barrett’s termination, Bungie confronted appreciable public accusations of misconduct towards girls. Firing Barrett allowed defendants to falsely pin these points on Barrett and create a story that they had been taking harassment points significantly. After all, if they’d hearth a creator of their two major franchises, they may hearth anybody. Never thoughts that Barrett had not engaged or been accused of the misconduct at problem, a lot much less any misconduct, the lawsuit mentioned.
The lawsuit claimed that Barrett has been harmed financially, bodily, and emotionally.
“He has been the topic of harassment and public ridicule, has misplaced buddies {and professional} alternatives, and has seen relationships with household strained. His lifelong dream of launching his personal online game firm (as soon as inside attain for a revered designer of a number of legendary video games) has been crushed,” the lawsuit mentioned.
Barrett joined Bungie in 1999, after drawing consideration as a Myth modder. He was credited for work on Myth II.
In these early days, Barrett famous by way of the lawsuit, “Colorful language and off-color jokes had been frequent. Employees often and brazenly referred to issues as ‘homosexual’. Sexual ‘mother’ jokes and racist
jokes had been commonplace. Nudity was not prohibited — Bungie personnel engaged in ‘moonings’ within the workplace, the place staff would pull their pants down and show their buttocks (a follow that continued to some extent through the years).”
Barrett went on to work on Halo, which drew Microsoft’s consideration, resulting in the acquisition of Bungie. He additionally had outstanding roles later, like lead surroundings artist of Halo 2. He obtained a $200,000 bonus for his position on Halo 3. Then Bungie started plans to spin out of Microsoft.
In that deal, Barrett obtained, beginning on October 1, 2007, Barrett was to obtain “founder shares” equal to roughly 2.5% of the newly spun off Bungie. On December 31, 2010, Barrett signed an employment settlement with Bungie and was granted 336,375 shares of Series B-2 Preferred Stock and 48,000 shares of Common Stock. All these shares had been to vest over the next decade, would routinely vest upon a change of management, and any unvested shares can be forfeited if Barrett left Bungie voluntarily (which offered vital incentive for Barrett to remain at Bungie).
Bungie made Barrett answerable for the artistic and artwork design for Bungie’s subsequent franchise, later named Destiny. Barrett was named co-creator of Destiny alongside Bungie cofounder Jason Jones. Destiny launched in 2014 and it was a giant hit, and it reaped revenues for years to return as a “stay service” sport. When Destiny 2 was delayed, Barrett was assigned to do a brand new growth for Destiny and he did it ontime and underneath price range. He then helped with Destiny 2, which shipped in 2017. Post launch, he turned the Destiny 2 sport director in command of the stay companies group and his pay was elevated later to $240,000, the lawsuit mentioned.
In December 2021, IGN dropped a bombshell article about #MeToo issues round sexual harassment at Bungie. Without referring to senior managers by identify, the story described a variety of dangerous habits in addition to poor work situations similar to unpaid crunch time and that Bungie management protected these managers. Bungie CEO Pete Parsons responded to the allegations, saying the corporate had taken numerous initiatives to enhance habits and dealing situations.
While denying any position in such habits, Barrett alleged within the lawsuit that he witnessed “a really senior Bungie govt” texting him and others “sexually suggestive materials, together with lewd images, texts about his intercourse life (together with graphic descriptions of explicit intercourse acts), and texts in regards to the look of girls working for Bungie.”
The lawsuit alleged the identical senior Bungie govt often confirmed up for work drunk, attending group conferences whereas clearly intoxicated, and engaged in sexual conduct at Bungie-sponsored occasions. And it mentioned one among Bungie’s founding members made frequent sexist and racist feedback in group settings.
“For instance, in a management assembly, he joked that “a girl’s place is barefoot and pregnant” (or phrases to that impact). Barrett reprimanded him over e-mail, however he confronted no penalties,” the lawsuit alleged. “During an interview, a possible rent informed Barrett that Bungie ought to identify a Destiny faction ‘The Rotten Cunt.’ Barrett reported the remark to the group evaluating the candidate and insisted that Bungie not rent him.” Leadership nonetheless employed the candidate.
The lawsuit mentioned a feminine workplace administrator shared express tales about her sexual exploits; and “at the least one Bungie worker often uncovered himself within the workplace, together with by knocking down his pants in the course of the workplace and urgent his uncovered buttocks towards glass overlooking all the studio.”
Despite the #MeToo issues, Sony selected to go forward with the acquisition of Bungie, the lawsuit alleged. In January 2022, Barrett signed an settlement that may have paid him within the $45 million vary. On January 31, 2022, Sony introduced the $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie. The deal closed on July 15, 2022. Barrett bought a $1.8 million cost however was due $45.6 million.
Barrett’s lawsuit claimed that Bungie misplaced its autonomy as a result of the division underperformed Sony’s expectations on efficiency metrics and monetary targets. In May 2023, Barrett was publicly revealed as the sport director on Marathon.
In October 2023, Bungie had a mass layoff of round 100 folks. Cost reducing ensued and video games similar to Marathon had been delayed. By February 2025, Sony video games head Jim Ryan introduced 8% of Sony’s sport group can be laid off. That was 900 folks.
Barrett moved to Florida, and whereas there, he was changed by Joe Ziegler as sport director of Marathon and was blamed for Marathon’s delays, the lawsuit alleged. Barrett was renamed “franchise sport director.” In impact, he was moved upstairs with nothing to handle, whereas Barrett’s supervisor allegedly belittled him publicly. Barrett then filed for a psychological well being depart. Then the “investigation” started.
Weeks later, Barrett was fired. And after his termination, in July 2024, 155 extra folks at Bungie had been absorbed into Sony and 220 extra Bungie jobs had been eradicated.
