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Bungie says it won't tolerate harassment in its workplace

Bungie says it won't tolerate harassment in its workplace

Destiny developer Bungie has said it will confront harassment "head on" and won't tolerate that kind of behaviour at the studio.

In a thread on Twitter, the studio said that it had a responsibility to ensure that this kind of misconduct had no place in its workplace, while vowing to never vow this behaviour or "sweep it under the rug." Bungie also admitted that it isn't perfect and that instances of harassment have occurred on its watch.

This comes in the wake of a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard which alleges the company has a toxic working culture and details numerous accusations of sexual harassment and other general shitty behaviour. Activision Blizzard has claimed that the examples California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing are "distorted and in many cases false."

Bungie, of course, worked with Activision on the Destiny IP until the two parted ways in 2019

"It's our responsibility to ensure this type of behaviour is not tolerated at Bungie at any level, and that we never excuse it or sweep it under the rug," Bungie wrote.

"While the accounts in this week’s news are difficult to read, we hope they will lead to justice, awareness, and accountability.

"We have a zero-tolerance policy at Bungie for environments that support this toxic culture, and we are committed to rooting them out to defend those who are at risk.

"Women, POC, and underrepresented communities have nothing to gain by reliving their trauma. We believe them when they come forward with reports of abuse or harassment.

"We don’t pretend that Bungie is perfect and that no one has experienced harassment while working here, but we will not tolerate it and will confront it head on. And we will continue to do the work every day to be better.

"Our goal is to continue to improve the experience for everyone working at Bungie and do our part to make the gaming industry as a whole to be more welcoming and inclusive."

 


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.