A trio of French media reports over the weekend accuse high-profile PlayStation developer Quantic Dream (Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, the upcoming Detroit: Become Human) of fostering a “toxic corporate culture” where inappropriate behavior and homophobic, racist, and sexist jokes were tolerated, if not encouraged.
The reports spring from a complaint reportedly filed last spring by five former Quantic Dream employees, centering on what French newspaper Le Monde describes as “degrading photomontages.” French magazine CanardPC includes some examples of those (NSFW) montages on its Web version, showing Quantic Dream employees photoshopped onto sexually suggestive or explicit images. Le Monde’s report cites a collection of roughly 600 such images that circulated around the company via group email since 2013, including some with “homophobic or sexist slurs.” French online news site Mediapart has a similar report.
Quantic Dream founder David Cage is accused in the Le Monde piece of making racist remarks toward a Tunisian employee surrounding CCTV footage of a burglary. Cage is also accused of making repeated dirty jokes in work situations and sexist remarks about female cast members in his games.
Cage is quoted in Le Monde’s piece as saying the accusations are “ridiculous, absurd and grotesque.” Cage says he was not aware of the worst of the shared images until they were recently brought to his attention, though some employees say these images were often printed and displayed around the company offices.
“You want to talk about homophobia? I work with Ellen Page, who fights for LGBT rights,” Cage told Le Monde. “You want to talk about racism? I work with Jesse Williams, who fights for civil rights in the United States. Judge my work.”
Quantic Dream cofounder Guillaume de Fondaumière, who stands accused of various acts of sexual misconduct in the piece, called the accusations “absolutely false” and insisted, “none of any of this happened at any evening event.”
In a follow-up statement posted on Twitter Sunday, Quantic Dream says it “categorically den[ies] all of these allegations. Quantic Dream filed a complaint several months ago, and further complaints will follow.
“Inappropriate conduct or practices have no place at Quantic Dream. We have taken and always will take such grievances very seriously,” the statement continues. “We value every single person who works at Quantic Dream. It is of utmost importance to us that we maintain a safe environment that allows us all to channel our shared passion for making video games.”
Back in 2013, Quantic Dream found itself embroiled in a scandal when nude images of Ellen Page’s character from Beyond: Two Souls were found embedded in the game and leaked via the use of a “debug” PlayStation 3. It was later revealed that Page was considering legal action against Quantic Dream surrounding the leaked images.
Quantic Dream also faced a different kind of controversy concerning a Paris Games Week trailer for the upcoming Detroit: Beyond Human, which focused on scenes of domestic abuse. In December, UK parliament member Damian Collins said it was “completely wrong” to feature such domestic violence in a game, echoing other activists quoted at the time. Cage defended the scene, telling Eurogamer that he “[tries] to tell a story that matters to me, that I find moving, interesting and exciting and my role as a creator is to maybe deliver something that people don’t expect… The rule I give myself is to never glorify violence, to never do anything gratuitous. It has to have a purpose, have a meaning, and create something that is hopefully meaningful for people.”
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