Sexual Harassment is a major concern in the workplace and unfortunately, it is something that has plagued the gaming industry as well. Not only do we have sexual harassment in the gaming industry but hostile work environment as well. Other than that sexism is common and we have heard about bro culture in the industry as well.
Sexual harassment in the gaming industry might be coming to our attention now but this is nothing new. Women in the industry have been silent about this for a while now and they have finally found the courage to speak up due to some courageous and brave women that now have a major role in the gaming industry.
Here we are going to look into sexual harassment and hostile work environment that prevails in different companies in the gaming industry.
Sexual Harassment At Quantic Dream
French developer Quantic Dream, which is known for games like Detroit: Become Human, and Heavy Rain, is under investigation by Game Workers Unite. The investigation comes after sexual harassment reports towards female staffers.
Game Workers Unite has announced that it is joining French union Solidaires Informatique to investigate Quantic Dream. Both the organizations are looking for testimonies from both current and former employees.
In a joint statement by the two organizations, the groups have urged staffers to come forth and speak up about the issues.
We have been informed of acts of sexual harassment and sexual assault committed against women who work and have worked in the company. These offenses are extremely serious and are punishable by law, however they seem to be repeated with impunity for several years because of a strong omerta, this must stop.
Harsh Work Environment At NetherRealm Studios
NetherRealm Studios is known for the Mortal Kombat series but I bet that you did not know what happens behind the scenes when people are working on these games. Employees talked about how hard and long they have to work in order to get things done at the studio. This is another example of a hostile work environment in the gaming industry. A former NetherRealm Studios’ employee mentioned the following:
I was doing 90-hour work weeks for about four months straight without a day off. This included working on Saturday and Sunday. I think the most hours I ever worked in a week was 115.
This is not the only person that talked about the hostile work environment at NetherRealm Studios. Isaac Torres, a former QA tester at NetherRealm Studios added:
I was tired all the time. It took me about 30-45 mins to get home since I had to take a bus. But I know someone who stayed on the couch in the office to not risk falling asleep while driving. I literally had no life for several months. There just wasn’t time. I would get to work at 9 or 10 am. I would leave at 2-3 am. And then that process would mostly repeat itself. Honestly, I have no clue how I did it. I’m pretty sure I aged 20 years in the span of three months.
I do not have to mention that employees need to have a work-life balance but that is not possible if they are expected to work for 100 hours.
Epic Games Employees Worked 100 Hour Weeks
Epic Games is known for making Fornite and it is the company behind the Epic Games Store. While you might have played the game and loved it, you might not know how hard it was to maintain the game and fix the issues that you pointed out. The team behind the game was working around the clock in order to keep things running and patching the game. One employee mentioned the following:
I work an average 70 hours a week. There’s probably at least 50 or even 100 other people at Epic working those hours. I know people who pull 100-hour weeks. The company gives us unlimited time off, but it’s almost impossible to take the time. If I take time off, the workload falls on other people, and no one wants to be that guy
We also heard that if people did not want to work the long hours then they were fired for not doing what they were told. I think that it is reasonable that people do not want to work 100 hours a week. I get that developers need to push when a game is close to release or when it needs to be fixed but there is a line that you should not cross. A sourced talked about how the workflow on Fortnite was being handled and mentioned the following:
The executives keep reacting and changing things. Everything has to be done immediately. We’re not allowed to spend time on anything. If something breaks — a weapon, say — then we can’t just turn it off and fix it with the next patch. It has to be fixed immediately, and all the while, we’re still working on next week’s patch. It’s brutal
It is surprising that these companies are willing to fire people for not going above and beyond. There are standard contracts that the company and the employee sign. I think that if the criteria of the contract are met, the company should not be able to fire the said employee. Epic might have a clause in the contract that allows it to do so. Another source:
I know some people who just refused to work weekends, and then we missed a deadline because their part of the package wasn’t completed, and they were fired. People are losing their jobs because they don’t want to work these hours.
Riot Games Employees Walkout Over Sexism
Riot Games employees have staged a walkout to protest the company’s forced arbitration policy for alleged misconduct. This appears to be the first ever walkout at a major gaming studio.
Riot Games is known to have a sexist culture and nothing has been done to make the women working at the studio more comfortable. In 2018, the developer was sued for gender discrimination and we recently learned that one of the managers at the firm tried to hire a woman because of how she looked and the manager thought that she had posted nudes online.
According to the messages that we have seen, the manager confessed to hiring the woman because of her body and mentioned that he was actively trying to find the alleged nudes online.
Sexual Harassment At Microsoft
A 90-page long mail thread was revealed in which multiple female employees in the firm complained about sexist behavior in the firm. The list mentioned a few sexual harassment incidents. These incidents were reported to HR and managers but it seems that Microsoft failed to do any justice. One female colleague reported the following incident of sexual harassment at Microsoft:
As a Microsoft Partner, [I] was asked to sit on someone’s lap twice in one meeting in front of HR and other executives. I can assure you that nothing was done. I alone objected and cited Microsoft policy. The person said that he did not have to listen and repeated the request a second time. No one said anything.
There are other incidents as well. This is just one of them. There have been other reports as well and you can read all about them in our dedicated article.
EA Executive Fired For “Who Has The Bigger D**k” Remark
This is old news now and you can read about it in case you missed it but you have to wonder that if this kind of behavior is taking place at the executive level then what is going on at the lower management levels. This is a case that was brought to our attention and I am sure that there are plenty of cases that were pushed under the rug. We do not know about them.
EA did take action but we do not really know about everything that happens at the company. If Sexual harassment is common in other big companies such as Microsoft and Riot Games then I am sure that EA cannot be excluded from the list.
Sexual Harassment, Long Hours At Rockstar Games
We have got word from employees at Rockstar Games that they get long hours and compete with one another on the basis of loyalty and overtime. One of the employees reported the following:
Sexual harassment and bullying is something which needs addressing properly. Perpetrators still get promotions/keep their position of authority and victims are ignored, one developer shared anonymously.
I love Rockstar and I think that other people in the gaming world do. This is something that I did not expect from the developer and it needs to do something about this. Fast.
Let us know what you think about sexual harassment and hostile work environment plaguing the gaming industry and what you think should be done about all this.
