Sony is firing again in courtroom within the ongoing lawsuit between Bungie and former Marathon director Christopher Barrett. The Bungie veteran sued the studio in late 2024 after he was fired over alleged misconduct. He known as the investigation a “sham” in his lawsuit. Now Sony has responded and printed some creepy textual content messages Barrett despatched to feminine staff.
In March 2024 Barrett, Bungie’s govt inventive director on the time, was fired following an inner investigation into claims that he had despatched inappropriate and “disturbing” messages to a number of subordinate feminine staff on the studio behind Future and Halo. Barrett sued in retaliation in December 2024. Within the go well with he known as Bungie’s investigation a “sham,” denied committing any fireable offenses, and instructed that Sony terminated his job as a part of a ploy to disclaim him greater than $40 million that he in any other case would have been paid as a consequence of Sony shopping for Bungie in 2022. Final week, Sony filed its personal authorized response and shared proof of Barrett’s texts to a number of girls.
As reported by Recreation File on February 19, Sony’s 128-page courtroom submitting consists of 9 textual content messages Barrett allegedly despatched feminine staff at Bungie. Sony’s legal professionals say that these messages present a “sample of misconduct.” The doc was filed final week, in response to Recreation File.
In a single message Barrett asks a feminine Bungie worker, “Are you continue to in PJs?” and “[I]s it like a button down high and bottoms? Sweatpants? Lulu lemons?”
In one other message, Barrett known as a girl the “Holy Grail” and added:
I’m not hitting on you. I hope it doesn’t really feel like that. I’m married. However I will be trustworthy. You’re the .000001 and higher be handled like that without end.
The lady replied that her boyfriend treats her “very properly” and the previous Bungie director replied: “He higher cuz I might hit on you if he wasn’t.”
A unique lady working at Bungie claims Barrett known as her whereas drunk late at evening and spent hours together with her on FaceTime, regardless of the feminine worker asking him to respect her boundaries. At one level he allegedly took his cellphone into his bed room and mentioned, “I can’t imagine I’m mendacity in mattress speaking to [VICTIM 1].” She abruptly hung up.
Barrett’s lawyer despatched this assertion over to Recreation File:
Sony continues to disingenuously cherry decide 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 beneath his employment agreements. It’s telling that Sony doesn’t embody the complete textual content messages as reveals, or the complete content material of those conversations, and nothing in Sony’s response gives a reliable authorized or factual foundation to terminate Christopher for trigger.
“Christopher is assured that when all of the proof is offered, it will likely be clear that Sony engaged in a scheme to strip him of his function and the fairness awards he earned for his 25 years of loyal service to the corporate,” mentioned Barrett’s lawyer.
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