Top Director at Bungie Was Fired After Misconduct Investigation - Bloomberg (Update: Marathon is cooked)

[John Elden Ring]

Chris Barrett, one of the top executives at one of the video game industry’s leading studios, was fired this spring after he was accused by several female employees of inappropriate behavior, according to people familiar with the matter.

Starting at Bungie Inc. in 1999, Barrett rose through the ranks as an artist and then a director on the popular Halo and Destiny franchises and served on Bungie’s board before the company was bought by Sony Group Corp. for $3.6 billion in 2022. Until last summer he was also the director of Marathon, which the studio is hoping will become its next big game franchise. But in late March, he suddenly left the company.

Behind the scenes, 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. The people asked not to be named discussing private 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.

In a statement to Bloomberg News, Barrett said that throughout nearly 25 years at Bungie, “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.”

Sony Interactive Entertainment, Bungie’s parent company, would not comment on Barrett’s case specifically but a spokesperson said the company takes “all complaints of misconduct very seriously. It is our policy and practice to investigate every complaint promptly and take action based on the findings of our investigation.”

A "Destiny 2" video game sign during an expo in Los Angeles in 2017.Photographer: Troy Harvey/Bloomberg
Over the last two decades, the video game industry has faced a reckoning over its reputation as a boys’ club as it has grown into a $200 billion behemoth. Along the way, several top companies including Riot Games, Ubisoft Entertainment SA and Activision Blizzard all faced legal action and managerial shakeups following allegations of misbehavior by some of their staff. Activision paid $55 million last year to settle a lawsuit brought by California that accused the Call of Duty maker of harboring a “frat boy” culture. And in 2021, Riot Games paid $100 million to settle a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

 

[Evilnemesis8]

That's a yikes from me dawg.

 

[Johnic]

A gift that keeps on giving...

 

[Old Gamer]

 

[BillyZ]

How dare you not giving credit to Hermen

 

[quest4441]

Lesson no1 my mentor taught me was to never shit where you eat, this guy really ruined his career for the land whales of bungie . Never date anyone where you work, not worth the headache. Mike Pence rule is the golden mantra when working in corporate

 

[Vertigo]

… this is why they replaced Marathon’s director huh

 

[Neversummer]

Sony could’ve bought Kadokawa/Fromsoft or Square Enix & got more exclusive singleplayer games, mobile presence & ip to expand/bolster there live service & monetization of live service through collaboration using there extended ip that would’ve been acquired.

Instead bought Bungie for 4+ billion w a woke/agenda driven studio that co sign concord a woke/agenda driven studio that literally imploded wasting another 250+ million dollars.

But yeah PS wants to keep focusing & porting on PC ports good let the PS platform & PS storefront burn & let Steam & Nintendo chokehold PS into irrelevance. PS has done so many things to diminish its platform & storefront all to bolster competitors platform/hardware/storefront while loosing important 3rd party exclusive relationship to a weak Xbox. Will look back at how PS failed to put the final nail in the Xbox coffin

 

[Neversummer]

“PC port is a great direction” yeah after seeing his failure leadership the death of PS is near if they continue this route

 

[quest4441]

Sony could’ve bought Square Enix & got more exclusive singleplayer games, mobile presence & ip to expand/bolster there live service monetization.

Instead bought Bungie for 4+ billion w a woke/agenda driven studio that co sign concord a woke/agenda driven studio that literally imploded wasting another 250+ million dollars.

But yeah PS wants to keep focusing & porting on PC ports good let the PS platform & PS storefront burn & let Steam & Nintendo chokehold PS into irrelevance. PS has done so many things to diminish its platform & storefront all to bolster competitors platform/hardware/storefront while loosing important 3rd party exclusive relationship to a weak Xbox. Will look back at how PS failed to put the final nail in the Xbox coffin

Bruh I am all for dunking on the PC port business but the thread doesn't have anything to do with pc ports, You are starting to look like you have Port Derangement Syndrome (PDS)

 

[quest4441]

This is this dunce's wife btw, Dude has this at home but still goes fishing for the blue haired whales at Bungie.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Jason is making a career of milking this story. The guy was fired months ago. Bye.

 

[Neversummer]

Bruh I am all for dunking on the PC port business but the thread doesn't have anything to do with pc ports, You are starting to look like you have Port Derangement Syndrome (PDS)

I mention the ports because the Bungie situation shows a failure in Sony & PS leadership & vision of gaming more directly of the PS platform.

PS leadership continues the PC port saying things like expanding the ip & other reasons & as shown w Bungie PS leadership have zero fucking clue of its competitors or what the future of the PS platform will be because it’s to focus on PC, Nintendo etc instead of PS console. This is bolstered when in 2023 & 2024 PS releases more singleplayer PC port on PC then PS singleplayer exclusive from first party/Sony owned ip. When PS is releasing 3-4 PC ports & only releasing 1 singleplayer game that’s when you have a problem with not just output but PS leadership & what there focus on.

Just like how Valve/Steam killed Xbox & soon windows by slowly merging from the shadows PS will fuck around & find out & it will be to late for PS to pivot to there old ways just. Sometime the old ways beats the new ways & clearly Nintendo & Valve/Steam has proven that time & time again

 

[Vertigo]

This whole time we were thinking it was design related as to why Valorant’s Joe Ziegler replaced Barret as Marathon director. But it was actually this.

Shame really. Dude is married too. But he did always give strong holier than thou vibes and there it is… I don’t usually care about this kind of stuff but the quid pro quo claims are enough to ruin his run.

 

[Etifilio]

people like @mibu no ookami will tell you this is the best acquisition in history

 

[Bryank75]

Was he not the guy who got SNTR banned from Destiny and Twitch?

Maybe I'm wrong there... Let me know.

 

[Vertigo]

Was he not the guy who got SNTR banned from Destiny and Twitch?

Maybe I'm wrong there... Let me know.

Seems so. Karma is a bitch. Great to see. Also great to see Ball Tosser gets his ass handed.



Like, I said… Christopher Barrett played it off as holier than thou but was in fact a hypocrite. See, just goes to show you… that when you’re posting the color of your fingernails for twitter likes — you’re a loser

To be honest— I don’t care if you’re a serial cheater … but not at work dumbass

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

This is this dunce's wife btw, Dude has this at home but still goes fishing for the blue haired whales at Bungie.

You mean those with pink and purple hair with one side shaved? This guy definitely needs his D to be cut and fed to dogs.

 

[Old Gamer]

This is this dunce's wife btw, Dude has this at home but still goes fishing for the blue haired whales at Bungie.

What a moron he is.

 

[Vertigo]

She looks way hotter in recent photos btw lol.

She was sexually assaulted herself in nyc this last year herself. Sad