Fired Bungie developer who is suing Sony could have made $84 million from Bungie-Sony deal
Plus: A gamer’s brazen reaction to Nintendo’s lawyers
A lawsuit filed last week by Christopher Barrett, a 25-year veteran of Destiny development studio Bungie, is calling out the process by which the developer was ousted by Bungie and parent company Sony Interactive Entertainment for alleged misconduct.
Barrett, who had been the game director on Bungie’s high-stakes revival of Marathon, prior to a change in roles, was fired earlier this year. His dismissal followed an investigation that he now calls a “sham.”
The 82-page lawsuit for breach of contract and defamation, among other claims, slams Bungie’s investigation and raises the prospect that the culture (good or bad) of the studio could face new scrutiny through legal proceedings—that is, if the whole thing isn’t settled first.
Sony has not commented on the lawsuit, which was filed in Delaware’s Court of Chancery, and did not reply to requests for comment about it from Game File. Its lawyers have not yet filed any responses in court.
Barrett’s lawsuit has already accomplished something else: It is providing an unprecedented amount of detail about just how lucrative the acquisition of a studio like Bungie can be for its leaders.
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