Former Bungie director Chris Barrett is suing PlayStation and Bungie for greater than $200 million, denying allegations of sexual misconduct and claiming that his firing was supposed to keep away from paying out practically $50 million owed below his employment settlement. IGN has reached out to Sony and Bungie for remark.
The 81-page lawsuit lays out seven counts in opposition to Bungie and SIE, together with Household and Medical Go away Act [FMLA] retaliation, defamation, and breach of contract. Barrett is looking for no less than $100 million in defamation damages along with greater than $90 million for cash owed below retention agreements, alleged Washington Rebate Act [WRA] violations, and different compensation.
Reviews emerged earlier this 12 months that Barrett, a Bungie worker who additionally labored on each Halo and Future, was fired from his place as Marathon’s director after an inner misconduct investigation. A Bloomberg report cited sources claiming that Barrett “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.”
Barrett launched a press release on the time saying, “I really feel that I’ve at all times carried out myself with integrity and been respectful and supportive of my colleagues, a lot of whom I contemplate my
closest associates. I by no means understood my communications to be undesirable and I’d have by no means thought they may probably have made anybody really feel uncomfortable. If anybody ever felt that method about their interplay with me, I’m really sorry.”
Barrett’s lawsuit alleges that he was scapegoated for Bungie’s total struggles within the wake of the PlayStation acquisition and that the investigation was used as trigger to fireside him after requesting FMLA depart. Barrett’s lawsuit additionally says that most of the allegations specified by a 2021 IGN investigation into Bungie’s office tradition have been “not surprising to him” and lays out a number of allegations of his personal, together with claims that no less than one worker “steadily uncovered himself within the workplace” and that Bungie “maintained an electronic mail channel that shared lewd and semi-pornographic content material to the whole studio.”
Barrett alleges that he sought to take psychological well being depart in late 2023, however was as an alternative faraway from his function on Marathon. In describing the investigation into his conduct, Barrett claims that he was confronted about what he described as “unspecified texts” however “however failed to indicate Barrett any of the communications, determine any of the recipients or senders, and even disclose when the communications passed off — thereby rendering Sony’s supposed ‘investigation’ into these texts pointless, and failing to satisfy any skilled requirements for conducting an investigation.” Barrett was subsequently fired for gross misconduct in March 2024, with Joe Ziegler taking up the function as Marathon director.
Barrett’s lawsuit provides to Bungie’s latest struggles. Earlier this 12 months, the studio laid off 220 workers, and in a report printed in December 2023, Bungie devs described the environment on the studio as “soul-crushing.” Marathon, in the meantime, doesn’t but have a launch date, although it is anticipated to see a playtest someday in 2025.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s Information Director in addition to co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Ship her a DM at @the_katbot.