Bungie and Sony Sued for 200 Million Dollars By Ex-Director

In March of this year, Christopher Barrett – the then-director of Marathon and long time member of Bungie, was fired from his role due to allegations of sexual misconduct. Now, Barrett is back with a $200+ million dollar lawsuit, claiming the firing was, among other things, “Machiavellian.”

In the lawsuit’s 81-page document, the lawsuit alleges that Bungie and Sony used Barrett as, essentially, a scapegoat. That Sony’s $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie hadn’t gone so well, and that Bungie had plenty of their own internal issues and delays.

On top of this, the lawsuit alleges that Bungie had developed something of a problem when it came to treatment of their female staff at the time – something that they similarly scapegoated onto a single person.

Of note is the fact that the lawsuit does not deny the existence of a toxic workplace culture at Bungie, and in fact, supports its existence. Rather, it claims that the problem went far beyond Barrett.

The lawsuit describes how Barrett was brought in from mental health leave, and questioned by Sony’s legal department shortly before he was let go from Bungie, describing the events as follows:

Barrett was never asked whether he had ever engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct, whether he ever sent inappropriate sexual or pornographic materials to a co-worker, or whether he ever retaliated against a co-worker for rebuffing his advances or discriminated against a female colleague on the basis of her sex. Barrett was not asked those questions because Barrett did not engage in, and has not been accused of, any such conduct.

Part of the allegations against Sony and Bungie hinge on the fact that Barrett was never made aware of what the investigations were about, nor given a chance to defend himself against them.

Barrett has also made a post on X, giving his side of the story in a more personable way.

As of now, this case has only just begun. No official ruling has come down on either side, and neither Sony nor Bungie have released any statement of their own on the issue.

A History Of Problems At Bungie

In 2021, IGN released a story about workplace harassment within Bungie, the contents of which were apparently of little surprise to Barrett.

Bungie’s history with this sort of thing is fairly well-known at this point, but how deeply Barrett was involved in that is a matter of contention.

In either case, Bungie’s reputation hasn’t grown much since 2021. While reports of harassment are certainly less common, other issues keep a persistent spotlight on the company.

Back then, things were bad enough that Bungie’s HR head stepped down – now, it’s the usual story of mass layoffs we’ve seen in so many other companies.

Will Bungie’s persistent issues come up in Barrett’s lawsuit? Almost certainly – the argument of Barrett as a scapegoat would demand it. And unless things get settled out of court, it’s not impossible that more details will come to light.