Former Marathon creative director Christopher Barrett is suing Bungie for an astronomical $200 million, which is close to what its parent company Sony paid for Spider-Man darling Insomniac Games back in 2019.
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Last year, Bungie and Sony fired Christopher Barrett, who was then the creative director of Bungie’s new nascent extraction shooter, Marathon. The reason for the firing, which is the entire focus of the lawsuit, remains unclear, but Bloomberg reports that 8 different women came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Barrett.
Now Barrett is suing both Sony and Bungie in Delaware’s Chancery Court, which is essentially a special court focused on businesses incorporated within Delaware. The legal complaint, which was made public by Barrett, alleges that Sony and Bungie “deliberately destroyed Barrett’s reputation by falsely, and publicly, insinuating they had investigated Barrett and found that he had engaged in sexual misconduct.”
Barrett’s legal counsel argues that Bungie and Sony fired the creative director not because of the allegations, but because Barrett would be owed a substantial $50 million payout as per his employment contract terms with Bungie. Barrett is one of Bungie’s long-time employees and has been with the company for nearly 25 years–that’s a lot of time to accrue stock, bonuses, and other incentives.
“Defendants did not care that none of it was true; they had blatant motivations for their brazen scheme: (i) to avoid paying Barrett the nearly $50million he is owed under his employment agreement, and (ii) to shift blame for and deflect attention away from their massive business failures. And to achieve those corporate objectives, they were willing to sacrifice Barrett.”
The lawsuit goes on to say that Sony and Bungie “sacrificed” Barrett to take attention off of Destiny 2’s woes, and to take the heat off of existing allegations against Bungie. The complaint alleges that Sony “baselessly” fired Barrett, supposedly for “cause of gross misconduct.” The suit argues that Barrett did not violate Bungie’s harassment policy, and that Bungie’s decision does not track with its existing policies.
Barrett argues that Sony’s investigation was very light, and that there had been no discussions of sexual misconduct or harassment during the meeting with Sony’s legal team. The game developer’s lawsuit claims that Barrett was notified of the meeting while on a mental health sabbatical, and that he was fired within 3 weeks after the meeting.
“Barrett brings this action to recover tens of millions of dollars he is owed for stock he earned through twenty-five years of hard work, to recover for the retaliation he has suffered, to restore his hard-earned reputation, and to be compensated for the falsehoods knowingly and maliciously spread about him by the Defendants.”
Christopher Barrett is seeking $200 million total from the lawsuit, which is just $29 million shy of what Sony paid for Insomniac Games years ago. Insomniac has gone on to become one of Sony’s most treasured first-party studios thanks to the enormous success of the Spider-Man games.
Of that $200 million, roughly $45,579,627 is owed through pre-existing employment terms, the lawsuit alleges, alongside another $45.6 million for breaking Washington’s Wage Rebate Act. Barrett is also asking for “not less than $100 million” in defamation and punitive damages.