Chris Barrett, who previously led the development of Marathon, is set to sue his former employers — Bungie and Sony. He accuses the companies of deliberately ruining his reputation and career.
Marathon
To recap, he left Bungie in March 2024 after 25 years of service. Half a year later, it was revealed that the reason for his dismissal was accusations of inappropriate behavior from at least eight female employees, as reported by Bloomberg, citing the victims.
Now, Barrett has decided to share his own version of the events. In his lawsuit, he claims that the Sony investigation into harassment was a sham, concealing an even more "shady scheme." But let's start from the beginning.
Chris Barrett's Version of Events
It all began when he suddenly learned about the internal investigation while he was on mental health leave. Following that, he had to communicate with a Sony lawyer alone, without any legal representation.
During the discussion, no specific accusations were made — there wasn't a hint of workplace harassment, inappropriate messages, or discrimination. All questions pertained solely to business communication. Furthermore, the Sony representative asked Barrett about certain correspondences with colleagues but refused to show them.
Shortly thereafter, Barrett was simply messaged on Teams about "gross misconduct" on his part, which would result in termination. No details or opportunity to defend himself were provided. The culmination of this "malicious plan" was the Bloomberg publication, allegedly instigated by Bungie and Sony.
The Real Reasons for the Scandal
Why did the companies decide to unscrupulously get rid of a loyal employee? Barrett is convinced that Sony sought to scapegoat him for their own failures.
The lawsuit claims that the acquisition of Bungie turned out to be a "catastrophe" for the Japanese company: money was not flowing in, deadlines were missed, and the bet on Marathon didn't pay off — the announcement was criticized by the public. Hence, the former project head became the perfect scapegoat. He asserts that he had no involvement in business processes, only overseeing the creative side of development.
Moreover, such a serious reason for dismissal allowed management to avoid paying him the rightful $45 million. As reported by Barrett, under his employment contract with Bungie, he held 336,000 "founder shares" and another 48,000 ordinary shares.
Finally, the loud accusation against Barrett helped to bury the harassment issues within Bungie, which allegedly cares about all complaints. In the lawsuit, he disclosed that one of the top managers regularly appeared drunk at work, sent him and other employees explicit photos, shared intimate details of his life, commented on employees' appearances, and more.
Another similar instance — an unnamed company founder, according to him, constantly made sexist and racist jokes like "a woman's place is at home, barefoot and pregnant." These people still hold their positions.
"Barrett became a target of bullying and ridicule, lost friends, career prospects, and suffered from family discord. His dream of creating his own game company — once entirely realistic for the creator of iconic games — was shattered," the lawsuit states. He has evaluated his reputational damage at $200 million.
Bungie and Sony have yet to comment on the matter.