Former development lead Chris Barrett accuses Sony/Bungie of firing him to avoid paying $45 million

Chris Barrett was one of the prominent developers fired in March 2024 in the wake of the Me Too scandals that hit the gaming industry.

But Barrett, the gaming artist, filed a lawsuit today against his former companies Sony Interactive Entertainment and Bungie, alleging they fired him to avoid giving him $45 million he said he was entitled to. We’ve asked Sony/Bungie for comment.

Barrett’s lawsuit said the defendants “intentionally destroyed Barrett’s reputation by falsely and publicly insinuating that they ‘investigated’ Barrett and ‘found’ that he engaged in sexual misconduct.” The defendants did not care that none of it was true; “They had blatant motives for their brazen scheme.” This was the amount he said he was entitled to under his employment agreement.

The lawsuit went on to say that the companies were motivated by a need to “shift blame and divert attention away from their massive business failures.” To achieve those institutional goals, they were willing to sacrifice Barrett.

While this sounds despicable, Barrett has been accused of crossing the line between professional and personal conduct. In the context of her journalistic investigation into the “Me Too” scandal, Bloomberg interview Eight people, including several women, reported on Barrett, as well as other Bungie employees who participated in the investigation or spoke to the women involved.

A long career in ruin

Barrett began his career in the video game industry by creating maps and levels for the game Myth for free, as a fan, at night, after working his day job in New York, the lawsuit said. Bungie, the creator of the legend, recruited Barrett and over the next 25 years, Bungie and Barrett had an amazing journey.

“Barrett led the technical development of some of the world’s most legendary video game franchises, including Halo and Destiny (the latter of which was nominated for Best Continuing Game at the 2024 Game Awards), received a valuable stake in Bungie stock, and became the chief executive of the lawsuit,” the lawsuit said. The driving force and lead designer of Bungie’s hottest new gaming project, Marathon.

That journey ended abruptly in 2024 when Sony, which acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022, in coordination with Bungie, removed Barrett from his position in charge of Marathon development and then fired him groundlessly, citing “cause,” after supposed allegations. The lawsuit said.

Barrett claims he was told an investigation was being conducted into his behavior while he was on mental health leave. He allegedly attended an “interview” meeting with Sony’s legal department but was not advised to seek legal advice, and said he was never offered any of the text messages.

“Barrett was never asked whether he engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct, whether he sent inappropriate sexual or pornographic material to a co-worker, or whether he retaliated against a co-worker for rejecting his advances or discriminating against a co-worker.” . Based on her gender. Barrett was not asked these questions because Barrett did not engage in any such conduct and was not charged with it.”

Less than three weeks after this interview, Barrett was notified via Microsoft Teams that he had engaged in unspecified “serious misconduct” and would be terminated for “cause.” The defendants refused to provide further explanation and told him that anything he could say wouldn’t make a difference, despite never giving him a chance to address the allegations in the first place, the suit said.

The lawsuit said the reason was a vague violation of Bungie’s harassment policy.

They then completed the Machiavellian trifecta by providing wildly misleading statements to Bloomberg intended to: (1) deflect blame for Sony’s underperforming $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie and delays in video game production by throwing shade at Barrett for his role in Marathon and (ii) blamed their public #MeToo problems by falsely insinuating that accusations of gross misconduct were against Barrett, when they were not, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also said that “Sony’s $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie was a disaster.” It said Bungie struggled to meet financial goals, fell behind on deadlines, and Marathon (the centerpiece of the deal) was the subject of intense public criticism. By closing the Barrett case, the defendants could save $45 million and fix the marathon cases on Barrett in one fell swoop.

The lawsuit continued that Bungie’s suffering should not have been a surprise. Before the Sony acquisition, Bungie was in a difficult financial situation. Destiny, the video game franchise responsible for the majority of Bungie’s revenue, did not perform as well as Bungie had hoped. However, Bungie was able to strike a deal with Sony that enabled Bungie’s management to retain some control after the acquisition. When Bungie then failed to deliver, with Marathon delayed and Bungie’s senior leadership in disarray, and with Sony looking to hold Bungie’s leadership accountable, Bungie offered Barrett (who was always in touch)
The lawsuit stated that the creative side, and was never active in running the business) as a sacrifice.

Before Barrett’s employment was terminated, Bunge faced significant public accusations of misconduct toward women, the lawsuit said. Barrett’s firing allowed accusers to falsely cast these issues at Barrett and create a narrative that they take harassment issues seriously. After all, if they fired the creator of the two major franchises, they could fire anyone. Regardless, Barrett did not engage in or be accused of the misconduct in question, let alone misconduct, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit alleged that Barrett suffered financial, physical and emotional harm.

He was the subject of public harassment and ridicule, lost friends and professional opportunities, and his relationships with his family became strained. His lifelong dream of launching his own video game company (which was on hand for a respected designer of many legendary games) was shattered, the lawsuit said.

Barrett joined Bungie in 1999, after gaining attention as one of the mythology designers. He was credited with working on the second myth.

In those early days, Barrett noted through the lawsuit, “colorful language and off-color jokes were common. Staff frequently and openly refer to things as “gay”. Sexist and racist “mom” jokes
The jokes were common. Nudity was not prohibited – Bungie employees would practice “mooning” in the office, where employees would pull their pants down and expose their buttocks (a practice that continued to some extent over the years).

Barrett went on to work on Halo, which caught the attention of Microsoft, which led to the acquisition of Bungie. He also had prominent roles later, such as the lead environment artist in Halo 2. He received a $200,000 bonus for his role in Halo 3. Bungie then began plans to exit Microsoft.

In that deal, Barrett received, starting on October 1, 2007, Barrett was to receive “founder stock” equivalent to approximately 2.5% of the newly spun-off Bungie. On December 31, 2010, Barrett signed an employment agreement with Bungie and received 336,375 shares of Class B-2 preferred stock and 48,000 shares of common stock. All of these shares were to vest over the next decade, would vest automatically upon a change of control, and any unvested shares would be forfeited if Barrett left Bungie voluntarily (which provided a significant incentive for Barrett to remain at Bungie).

Bungie made Barrett responsible for the creative and art design of Bungie’s next series, later called Destiny. Barrett has been named as co-founder of Destiny alongside Bungie founder Jason Jones. Destiny released in 2014 to great success, generating revenue for years to come as a “live service” game. When Destiny 2 was delayed, Barrett was tasked with making a new Destiny expansion and he did it on time and on budget. He then helped with Destiny 2, which shipped in 2017. After launch, he became the Destiny 2 game director in charge of the live services team and later increased his salary to $240,000, the lawsuit said.

In December 2021, IGN published a startling article about #MeToo issues with sexual harassment at Bungie. Without mentioning senior managers by name, the story described a range of bad behavior as well as poor working conditions such as unpaid crunch time and that Bungie’s leadership protected these managers. Bungie CEO Pete Parsons responded to the allegations, saying the company has taken various initiatives to improve behavior and working conditions.

While Barrett has denied any role in such conduct, he alleged in the lawsuit that he witnessed “a very senior Bungie executive” sending him and others “sexually suggestive material, including lewd images, and text about his sex life (including graphic descriptions of sexual acts Certain)”, and texts related to the appearance of women working at Bungie.”

The lawsuit alleged that the same senior Bungie executive would frequently show up for work drunk, attend group meetings while visibly intoxicated, and engage in sexual conduct at Bungie-sponsored events. She said a founding member of Bungie made repeated sexist and racist comments in group settings.

“For example, in a leadership meeting, he joked that ‘a woman’s place is barefoot and pregnant’ (or words to that effect). Barrett reprimanded him via email, but he faced no consequences,” the suit alleged. “During one interview, one employee told Barrett suggested that Bungie should name the Destiny faction “The Rotten Cunt.” Barrett reported the comment to the group evaluating the candidate and insisted that Bunge not appoint him. Leadership is still hiring the candidate.

An office manager shared explicit stories about her sexual exploits, the suit said. And “at least one Bungie employee repeatedly exposed himself in the office, including by pulling down his pants in the middle of the desk and pressing his exposed buttocks against the glass overlooking the entire studio.”

Despite the #MeToo issues, Sony chose to move forward with the acquisition of Bungie, the lawsuit alleged. In January 2022, Barrett signed an agreement that would have paid him $45 million. On January 31, 2022, Sony announced its acquisition of Bungie for $3.6 billion. The deal closed on July 15, 2022. Barrett received a payment of $1.8 million but was owed $45.6 million.

Barrett’s lawsuit claimed that Bungie lost its independence because the division underperformed Sony’s expectations on performance metrics and financial goals. In May 2023, Barrett was publicly revealed as Marathon’s game director.

In October 2023, Bungie made a mass layoff of about 100 people. Cost cutting and postponement of games such as Marathon ensued. By February 2025, Jim Ryan, Sony’s gaming president, announced that 8% of Sony’s gaming portfolio would be laid off. That was 900 people.

Barrett moved to Florida, and while there, he was replaced by Joe Ziegler as Marathon’s game manager and was blamed for delaying Marathon, the lawsuit alleged. Barrett was renamed “Franchise Game Director.” In fact, he was transferred upstairs without anything to manage, while Barrett’s manager was allegedly publicly belittling him. Barrett then applied for mental health leave. Then the “investigation” began.

Weeks later, Barrett was fired. After his termination, in July 2024, another 155 people at Bungie were absorbed into Sony and another 220 jobs at Bungie were eliminated.