Sony has pushed again towards claims levied by former Bungie director Christopher Barrett, who sued the 2 corporations in 2024 after he was fired from the Future 2 and Marathon developer. The PlayStation maker launched a 128-page response (first obtained by GameFile), seeking to dismiss six of the seven counts in Barrett’s lawsuit.
On the time, Barrett was laid off for alleged misconduct, which involved “behaving inappropriately” towards at the very least eight girls in numerous departments at Bungie. Barrett argued his firing was “unfounded” and accused Bungie and Sony of firing him to keep away from giving him a $45 million payout from his worker settlement.
Sony’s response counters Barrett’s accusations, saying the investigation towards him revealed his “constant” habits towards the unnamed workers.
“He focused a lower-level, feminine worker he wasn’t working with immediately, initially engaged in pleasant dialog, and progressively pushed boundaries with the worker by making refined references to her bodily look or expressing his curiosity in her romantically,” the response begins. “Barrett tried to create an unprofessional degree of intimacy with his victims.”
The response goes on to allege Barrett ceaselessly introduced up “inappropriate subjects” towards these girls, resembling their bodily look, and would textual content them “in any respect hours of the day and evening.” A number of texts are cited within the response, and had been additional corroborated by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who first reported Barrett’s firing.
Barrett and Bungie’s alleged relationship
In accordance with Sony, a number of of the victims advised Barrett to cease or reported him to Bungie’s HR division. Nevertheless, it is claimed he would proceed the sample after initially backing off. His alleged habits “made a number of feminine workers who had been subordinate to him really feel uncomfortable, worry retaliation, and really feel victimized by their encounters with him. This impeded their skill to carry out their job duties and thereby hindered [our] enterprise operations.”
Authorized representatives for Barrett advised Sport File that Sony continues to “disingenuously cherrypick textual content messages and alleged conversations and make unsupported and conclusory statements to defame Christopher and justify terminating him to keep away from paying him what he was owed underneath his employment agreements. […] Nothing in Sony’s response gives a reliable authorized or factual foundation to terminate Christopher for trigger.”
Barret has beforehand argued Bungie had a historical past of office toxicity that he was witness to. His preliminary lawsuit talked about a “very senior government” texting him and different high-level staffers inappropriate materials and texts concerning the look of ladies workers on the studio. Sony stated it “lacks data or info enough to type a perception as to the reality of the allegations,” however stay agency in its total argument.
“Barrett’s allegations that he was ‘scapegoated,’ ‘falsely accused, and ‘defamed’ are outrageous contemplating the proof,” continued Sony. “A whole bunch of Barrett’s personal written statements and the direct testimony of his many victims will reveal his termination for Trigger was justified and this lawsuit is meritless.”
Sony’s full response may be learn right here.
