High profile developer Quantic Dream is under fire from current and former employees who have spoken out against the company for its toxic environment. The company known for its story heavy games like Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and the upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive Detroit: Become Human is being called out for an uncomfortable and unprofessional environment filled with racism, homophobia, and gross sexual harassment amongst other things.
The company has already come out and denied the accusations publicly but the overwhelming amount of reports are drawing a lot of questions toward the company. The developer’s golden boy, David Cage, who has led multiple projects for the company spoke out about the subject of the homophobia and racism and dismissed them because they worked with the openly gay actress Ellen Page and have hired people of color.
“You want to talk about homophobia? I work with Ellen Page, who fights for LGBT rights. You want to talk about racism? I work with Jesse Williams, who fights for civil rights in the USA… Judge me by my work.”
Well, that people will, Cage. People have already brought up how in Beyond: Two Souls, a fully rendered naked model of Ellen Page’s character was discovered in the game’s files if players ran the game on a debug PlayStation 3 and did some tinkering around to be able to control the camera during a scripted shower sequence where the camera is never meant to show her bare body outside of her back.
Once the camera was moved her breasts, vagina, and butt were fully modeled. Nipples and all. It raised questions among the community and ethical concerns of why this was necessary as Page said she didn’t want her nude body scanned into the game and she even explored legal action toward Sony.
Furthermore, there have been questions of how Cage has handled female characters who have been violently thrashed around and more in his games like Heavy Rain. The most recent trailer for Detroit: Become Human caused quite the stir on the internet as it showed some intense domestic abuse toward a motherly figure and a child from a drunken father. Some feel Cage and Quantic Dream are unable to handle serious subject matters like this delicately despite how much the company thinks they can.
With all of that said, many folks are taking the side of the employees on this one. Sources say that Cage was warned by employees that the controversial trailer for Detroit may be misogynistic and offensive but he chose to ignore them as he was uninterested in changing the trailer or the content in the game. Specific examples of the toxic workplace include offensive photoshopped pictures of employees which include Nazi imagery, sexual misconduct, and more (view one of the pics below), racist profiling from Cage himself where after investigating footage of a burglary at the company, he turned to a Tunisian employee and asked if they were cousins.
Allegedly, the one responsible for the photoshops is a veteran at the studio and reports directly to the higher-ups and directors on behalf of the rest of the team to help communicate issues. The one in this position is supposed to remain neutral between both sides as to be able to help effectively solve a problem and give a satisfying resolution for both sides but he reportedly has a close connection to the direction team meaning he may be more likely to be biased toward Cage.
Canard PC (via ResetERA user Thomasorus) also notes that the HR side of things at QD is shady at best with loopholes that allow the company to illegally terminate contracts with “mutual departure agreements” so the company doesn’t have to pay taxes. The co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumière to fire himself for a $100,000 bonus and then he rehired himself the next day and changed his status at the company to claim mandatory French unemployment payout.
“QD categorically denies the allegations. As for myself, I’m furious and outraged by these accusations, which I take very seriously. And I will take all possible legal actions to defend my honor.” said Guillaume de Fondaumière in a statement to Kotaku regarding all accusations.
Folks at the company have also complained of stress, depression, and burnout, something not terribly uncommon due to the intense nature of game development and a period toward the end of a game’s development called “crunch”.
Other employees note Cage as a tyrant who doesn’t treat his co-workers as individuals but rather tools to help him complete his vision. Cage, who owns 60% of the shares in the company, says that he could act like that if he wanted to, but says it isn’t even logical for him to approach situations like that.
“If I wanted to work like that, I could: I’m a majority shareholder in this company, I’m the president, I’ve directed games for twenty years, the publishers we are working with are there because they are interested in my work. But it’s ridiculous. I’m working with a group of people of all origins, and the team takes collegiate decisions. Intellectually speaking, I cannot take hundreds of decisions alone”, he insists. He, however, admits taking “strategic decisions, directions” on his own: “If there are things to do or not do in the game, it’s my role, my responsibility to say it.”
“We can confirm the fact that the company works according to the direction given by David Cage. But it would be false to say that managers or leads have no decision-making power, if only in terms of recruitment, where David Cage almost never steps in, unless for specific directing or artistic positions. He is not in charge of human management within the services” say staff reps.
Some employees are denying anything like this exists at the studio along with David Cage and other studio heads. Someone who works on mocap at the company calls it “a fabric of lies” on Twitter and says “the atmosphere is great, nothing toxic, the employees are all different and borrow to laugh at everything.”
A preliminary investigation has begun at the public prosecutor’s office in Paris, where Quantic Dream is located, for harassment and discrimination. We’ll continue to keep you updated on GameZone.com as this story develops.
