Bungie Studios is the industry’s premier independent developer, but has fallen into disarray as its employees have revealed a studio mired in racism and sexism. While that may be shocking to some, it could also give an idea of how much work still needs to be done when it comes down to diversity.
The “Ubisoft 25” is a blog post that exposes the sexism and racism that Ubisoft has been trying to right its ship. The blog post shows how Ubisoft employees have been exposed as sexist, racist, and homophobic.
While the bulk of the attention is focused on Activision-Blizzard for its past and continuing mistreatment of its employees, the games business is still replete with instances of abusive, destructive, and inequitable churn for creators of all colors, genders, and orientations: There’s Riot Games, Ubisoft, and now, due to a big exposé from IGN, Bungie may be added to that shady list.
The writer talked with 26 current and former Bungie workers over the previous decade, with anecdotes ranging from 2011 to this year of a work atmosphere rife with a lot of heinous but all-too-common incidents of maltreatment.
Many of the worst accounts come from Bungie’s narrative team behind the Destiny series, particularly during the development of Destiny 2’s story, where employees were put under the boot of various narrative leads who would yell at meetings, throw a chair at a window during a temper tantrum, or make sexist and racist remarks. According to other sources, one Bungie leader grabbed venomous Reddit responses to the Curse of Osiris plot – many of which targeted female authors – and passed them on to other team heads in an attempt to bring down the narrative team.
Other employees’ accounts detail similar “rock star” treatment for long-serving members of the studio’s staff who were seemingly untouchable despite multiple HR complaints, as well as other men in upper management harassing female employees, using racist slurs in reference to more diverse Destiny NPCs, and overall mistreatment of transgender employees, including refusal to use correct pronouns or asking for transgender bathroom breaks.
The story prompted a lengthy response from CEO Pete Parsons, who apologized for transgressions that resulted in harm to employees who “graced [the] studio with their time and talent,” and outlined several initiatives aimed at preventing abuses, including mentioning that most of the problem leads and upper management have already been fired or have left the studio. Parsons also promised a focus on better planning and more reasonable release dates for future updates to avoid crunch, as well as a number of internal diversity initiatives and reviews of the studio’s hiring, compensation, and promotion practices with the help of a third-party audit to address pay inequity.
“As CEO, it is my responsibility to consider both the past and the future, and to be responsible for everything, now and in the future.” Speaking with the Bungie team, reading the tales, and seeing both known and recently uncovered experiences, it’s evident that there’s still a lot of work to be done.
It is something to which I am dedicated. We aren’t quite the studio we have the potential to be, but we’re getting there. And we will not stop or slow down our efforts because we know that the road towards openness, diversity, and equality is the goal we all want.”
Employees who spoke with IGN had various reactions to Parsons’ missive. Many people think that good efforts are being taken, such as one new Bungie project with a really diverse and compassionate team of developers, while others believe that the words and deeds are too little, too late. Those who have departed Bungie claim they did so under such favorable conditions that they have had no difficulty finding new jobs in the gaming business.
Other workers push Bungie to act now rather than later. “Rather to just asking, ‘Please give us feedback,’ listen to your people who have been providing it.’ One employee remarked, “Listen and act on it, and then tell us what you did.”
Readers may remember that Parsons voluntarily dropped compulsory arbitration in September and outlined Bungie’s continuous diversity and inclusion initiatives.
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The “next assassin’s creed time period” is a studio that has been experiencing sexism and racism. Bungie workers have exposed the issue and are trying to right their ship.
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