A week after reports of alleged toxicity and unsafe work environments began circulating about Bungie, the developer behind Destiny 2, the companies longtime head of HR, Gayle d’Hondt, has told employees that she will be stepping down from her role within the company. According to IGN, who also broke the story about toxicity, d’Hondt has stated she does not plan to leave yet. She is currently working with chief people officer Holly Barbacovi to determine “what the appropriate next steps are.”
Her departure announcement came alongside anecdotes about her own time at the studio, describing her own experiences dealing with harassment there as well. She stated that she was put in a position where she was forced to report “a man, an executive, and someone I thought was my friend at Bungie — which resulted in Bungie firing him.”
She also directly acknowledged that there are many flaws in Bungie’s handling of instances of alleged abuse, writing “I know that they need to be trusted to be your advocates – not labeled as ‘enablers’ or seen as company resources who provide bad actors with safe harbor.”
It is unclear at this time how much personal responsibility d’Hondt bears for the ongoing issues, with IGN, had previously outlined went back nearly a decade. It has been made clear that the report from IGN had a direct impact on her decision to leave. There is no singular person responsible for these issues, requiring multiple levels of failure to allow them to persist.
This comes at the tail end of a year where the industry attempted to grapple with these issues. Earlier this year Activision Blizzard, The company that previously funded Bungie, saw several walkouts related to working conditions at Blizzard, including unsafe work environments, harassment, and frat-boy culture. Bobby Kotick, who many have stated had direct knowledge of these issues and even contributed, has refused to step down with much of the board at Activision Blizzard standing with him.
Recently we also saw Vodeo Games, the studio behind the indie game Beast Breaker, for the first video game union in North America. While they are a small company, many believe we are poised to see a lot more unions getting implemented in the near future. This is something much of the industry has pushed for but has been unable to implement.
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