Chris Barrett was one of the prominent developers fired in March 2024 after the Me Too scandal hit the games industry.
But Barrett, a game artist has filed a lawsuit against his former employers Sony Interactive Entertainment and Bungie, accusing them of firing him to avoid paying him the $45 million he said he was entitled to. We have asked Sony/Bungie for comment.
Barrett’s lawsuit says defendant “Intentionally destroying Barrett’s reputation with false and public statements. It is implied that they “investigated” Barrett and “found” that he was involved in sexual misconduct. The defendant did not care that the story was not true. They had a clear motive for their brazen plan,” and that was the payout he said he was entitled to receive under his employment agreement.
The lawsuit goes on to say that the companies were motivated by the need to The company aims to “shift blame and distract attention away from their major business failures” and to achieve corporate objectives. They sacrificed Barrett.”
Even if that sounds disgusting. But Barrett has also been accused of crossing the line between professional and personal behavior. During the investigation into the Me Too scandal Bloomberg gave an interview Eight people, including several women, reported to Barrett. The same goes for other Bungie employees involved in the investigation or speaking with the women involved.
A long career in disaster
Barrett began his career in the video game industry by creating maps and levels for the free game Myth as a fan at night. After working on the New York case, Myth creator Bungie recruited Barrett, and over the next twenty-five years, Bungie and Barrett had an amazing experience.
The suit says, “Barrett drove the artistic development of some of the world’s most legendary video game franchises, including Halo and Destiny (the latter of which was nominated for Best Ongoing Game at the Game Awards). 2024) acquired a valuable stake in Bungie and became the driving force and lead designer of Marathon, Bungie’s most important new game project.”
That journey came to an abrupt end in 2024 when Sony, which had acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022 in concert with Bungie, removed Barrett from his position overseeing Marathon development and then fired him out of nowhere. base of truth This was allegedly due to the “cause” of the charges. Investigation of the said case
Barrett claims he was informed of the investigation into his behavior while on mental health leave. He claims he attended an “interview” meeting with Sony’s legal department. However, it is not recommended to bring legal counsel. And he said he never saw any messages.
“Barrett was never asked if he had ever been involved in inappropriate sexual conduct. or whether he has ever sent inappropriate sexual content or pornography to a co-worker or whether he ever retaliated against a co-worker who rejected his advances or discriminated against a female co-worker based on her gender. Barrett did not ask those questions because Barrett did not engage and has not been accused of such behavior,” the lawsuit alleged.
Less than three weeks after this interview, Barrett was notified via Microsoft Teams that he was involved in unspecified “serious misconduct” and would be terminated for “cause.” The defendant refused to explain further and was told that nothing he could say would make a difference. Even though he was never given the opportunity to participate in the allegations in the first place, the lawsuit said.
This was due to a vague violation of Bungie’s harassment policy, the lawsuit said.
“Then they did. The Machiavellian trifecta was completed by providing severely misleading information to Bloomberg, designed to: (i) deflect blame for Sony’s underperforming $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie; and delays in video game production by covering up for Barrett for his role in Marathon, and (ii) ) shifting the blame for their own public #MeToo issue by hinting that allegations of misconduct “Serious offenses were sent to Barrett when they were not,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also states that “Sony’s $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie is a disaster,” said Bungie, which has struggled to meet its financial targets. It fell behind schedule, and Marathon (the center of the transaction) was the subject of intense public criticism. By terminating Barrett for Cause, the defendants saved $45 million and pinned the Marathon issue on Barrett in one fell swoop.
Bungie’s struggles shouldn’t come as a surprise. The lawsuit continues. Before the Sony acquisition, Bungie was in a difficult financial position. Destiny, the video game franchise responsible for the majority of Bungie’s revenue, was not performing as well as Bungie had hoped. However, Bungie was able to reach a deal. with Sony, which allowed Bungie management to maintain some control post-acquisition when Bungie later under-delivered, where Marathon was delayed and Bungie’s senior leadership was in disarray, and when Sony wanted to Bungie leadership took charge, so Bungie brought in Barrett (who had always been in this position).
creative side and was never keen on managing business) was such a sacrifice to the case.
And the case said that even before Barrett’s firing, Bungie had faced public allegations of misconduct against women. By firing Barrett, the defendants wrongly pinned those problems on Barrett. and create a narrative that they are serious about the issue of harassment. In the end If they were to fire the creators of the two main franchises. They can fire anyone. Nevermind that Barrett has not participated in or been accused of misconduct in this matter. This is much less than any form of misconduct, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges that Barrett suffered financial, physical and emotional harm.
“He has been the target of threats and public ridicule. Loss of friends and career opportunities and saw strained relationships with family It was his lifelong dream to launch his own video game company. (which once had access to respected designers of many legendary games) collapsed,” the lawsuit said.
Barrett joined Bungie in 1999 after gaining attention as a Myth modder. He is credited with his work on Myth II.
Early on, Barrett noted through the lawsuit that “Colorful language and off-color jokes are common. Employees often openly and openly refer to things as ‘gay’. ‘Mom’s’ sexual and racist jokes
Jokes are common. Nudity Not Allowed – Bungie employees are having “sleepovers” in the office, where employees pull down their pants and show off their butts. (This is a practice that has continued to some degree over the years).”
Barrett went on to work on Halo, which caught the attention of Microsoft and led to its acquisition by Bungie. He also later played key roles, such as lead environment artist for Halo 2. He received a $200,000 bonus for his role. him in Halo 3, Bungie then began planning to separate itself from Microsoft.
In such agreement Barrett received Beginning October 1, 2007, Barrett will receive Barrett received “founder’s shares”, equivalent to approximately 2.5% of the newly spun-off Bungie’s shares. On December 31, 2010, Barrett signed an employment agreement with Bungie. Bungie and received 336,375 shares of Series B-2 preferred stock and 48,000 shares of common stock. All of these shares would be lost over the next decade. and will be vested automatically when control is changed. And any uninvested shares will be forfeited if Barrett voluntarily leaves Bungie (which is a key incentive for Barrett to stay at Bungie).
Bungie placed Barrett in charge of creative and art design for Bungie’s next franchise, which would be named Destiny. Barrett was named co-creator of Destiny along with Bungie Destiny founder Jason Jones. It was launched in 2014 and has become very popular. and continued generating revenue for several years as a “live service” game. When Destiny 2 was postponed, Barrett was tasked with creating a new expansion for Destiny, and he did it on time and under budget. Set it He then helped with Destiny 2, which released in 2017. After launch, he became the Destiny 2 game director in charge of the live services team. And his compensation was later increased to $240,000, the lawsuit said.
In December 2021, IGN dropped a shocking article about #MeToo issues surrounding sexual harassment at Bungie. The story didn’t mention senior managers by name. bad behavior This includes poor working conditions, such as unpaid critical time. And Bungie’s leadership has defended these managers. Bungie CEO Pete Parsons responded to the accusations. He said that the company has taken various initiatives. To improve behavior and working conditions
while denying any role in such behavior. Barrett alleges in the lawsuit that he saw “Senior Bungie executives” messaged him and others “sexually suggestive content Including obscene photos Messages about his sex life (including graphic descriptions of specific sexual acts) and statements about the appearance of women who work for Bungie.”
The lawsuit alleges that the same senior Bungie executive often came to work drunk. Attending a group meeting while visibly drunk and engaging in sexual misconduct at Bungie-sponsored events, and said one of Bungie’s founding members frequently made sexist and racist comments in the group’s environment.
“For example: at the leadership meeting He jokingly said, “A woman’s place is barefoot and pregnant” (or words to that effect), Barrett slammed him in an email. But he suffered no consequences,” the lawsuit said. “During the interview The employer told Barrett that Bungie should name the Destiny group ‘The Rotten Cunt’. Barrett reported that opinion to the group that was evaluating the applicants. and confirmed that Bungee did not hire him.” Leadership continues to hire applicants.
The lawsuit says a female office executive shared explicit stories of her sexual exploits and “at least one Bungie employee frequently exposed himself in the office. This included pulling down his pants in the middle of the office and pressing his exposed buttocks against the glass that was visible throughout the studio.”
Despite the #MeToo issue, Sony chose to proceed with its acquisition of Bungie, the lawsuit alleged. In January 2022, Barrett signed an agreement that would pay him in the range of $45 million. On January 31, 2022, Sony announced its acquisition of Bungie for $3.6 billion. The deal closed on July 15, 2022. Barrett received a payment of $1.8 million, but $45.6 million is due.
Barrett’s lawsuit alleges that Bungie lost its autonomy because the division underperformed Sony’s expectations on benchmarks and financial targets. In May 2023, Barrett was publicly announced as Marathon’s game director.
In October 2023, Bungie had about 100 mass layoffs, cost cutting occurred and games like Marathon were delayed. By February 2025, Sony’s head of games, Jim Ryan, announced that 8% of Sony’s games group would That’s 900 people were laid off.
Barrett moved to Florida, and at the time, he was replaced by Joe Ziegler as Marathon’s game director and was blamed for Marathon’s delays, the suit alleges. Barrett was renamed As a result, he was moved upstairs with nothing to do. Meanwhile, Barrett’s manager has been accused of publicly disrespecting him. Barrett then applied for mental health leave, and the “investigation” began.
A week later, Barrett was fired. And after his dismissal In July 2024, another 155 employees at Bungie were brought on board at Sony, and another 220 Bungie employees were laid off.
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