Bungie introduced in March that its upcoming Marathon reboot had a brand new sport director: Joe Ziegler, the previous director of Riot’s on-line shooter Valorant, who joined Bungie in 2022. Ziegler took over from Christopher Barrett, well-known amongst Bungie followers as a designer and director on the Halo and Future video games who’d been with the studio for almost 25 years. A purpose for Barrett’s shock departure wasn’t offered, however a brand new Bloomberg report says he was fired following an investigation into a number of complaints about inappropriate office conduct.
Not less than eight girls at Bungie had complained about Barrett, in accordance with a number of sources, and the following investigation discovered that he had known as lower-ranking feminine workers enticing, requested them to play Reality or Dare, and talked about his wealth and energy inside Bungie, apparently suggesting that he might assist their careers on the firm.
Sources advised the location that Barrett would befriend girls on the firm, then ship them “flirtatious” textual content messages and requests to “hang around.” A number of complainants stated the messages had been undesirable and made them uncomfortable due to the acute imbalance of energy concerned: It isn’t straightforward to say “no” to one of many greatest names on the firm, in spite of everything.
Barrett denied any intentional wrongdoing in an announcement offered to Bloomberg: “I really feel that I’ve at all times carried out myself with integrity and been respectful and supportive of my colleagues, lots of whom I take into account my closest mates. I by no means understood my communications to be undesirable and I might have by no means thought they might probably have made anybody really feel uncomfortable. If anybody ever felt that approach about their interplay with me, I’m really sorry.”
The report on the circumstances behind Barrett’s termination comes at a time of deep turmoil at Bungie, which has been wracked by large-scale layoffs, tensions with father or mother firm Sony, dissatisfaction with studio administration amongst workers and followers alike, and seemingly countless struggles with its flagship sport, Future 2. Barrett had been a producer on the Forsaken enlargement that launched in September 2018, and was broadly credited with turning the sport’s fortunes round throughout one other time when group dissatisfaction was perilously excessive.
The Marathon reboot itself—about which nearly nothing has been stated since its announcement in Might 2023—has additionally reportedly been delayed to 2025; PC Gamer’s personal sources at Bungie have indicated that growth of the sport is considerably not on time and customarily troubled.
I’ve reached out to Bungie for touch upon the report and can replace if I obtain a reply.
