Earlier this year,
Beyond: Two Souls and
Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream came under fire over allegations of toxic work conditions, which included sexist and racist emails, overworking staff, extensive crunch and other inappropriate and gratuitous behavior. Yesterday, Kotaku reported that he studio has filed lawsuits against two of the three French outlets who reported on those conditions.
Both the newspaper Le Monde and website Mediapart are facing legal action from Quantic Dream. It's a dangerous precedence, as this is the first incident of a video game studio taking legal action against the press for negative reporting. The two outlets and Canard PC had collaborated on this story, speaking to former employees of Quantic Dream and publishing their articles simultaneously.
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Since September 2017, two journalists from each publication have worked directly together, sharing approaches, witnesses and information. This crossover of views and skills between a video game magazine and a investigation specialist, serving a joint study, is to our knowledge a first," Canard PC explained in its English-language coverage.
"Each media outlet writes its own articles, but we try to coordinate, if possible, themes and dates of publication. For this story only, we also worked in parallel with our colleagues from Le Monde."
Canard PC’s article also included several photoshopped images featuring Quantic Dream employees’ faces on semi-nude bodies and Nazi uniforms. These images were reportedly distributed and displayed in public areas where everyone could see them. To that, Cage said, “
If we had been aware of these images, if we had seen them, we would have stepped in. But he creates them on his computer, on his free time, I am not going to dig in the personal computers of my employees.”
In an e-mail, Canard PC’s Gaudé told Jason Schreier that the sued publications will now have to demonstrate that they handled the story with fairness and “good faith.” Whatever the French legal system and court will decide here, the industry will be watching very closely for sure.
Travel to the near-future metropolis of Detroit – a city rejuvenated by an exciting technological development: androids. Witness your brave new world turn to chaos as you take on the role of Kara, a female android trying to find her own place in a turbulent social landscape.
Detroit: Become Human will launch on May 25, 2018 exclusively for PlayStation 4.
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