Hogwarts Legacy Lead Quits Following YouTube Channel Controversy
Troy Leavitt, the former lead designer on Hogwarts Legacy, has quit the project and has left [...]
Troy Leavitt, the former lead designer on Hogwarts Legacy, has quit the project and has left developer Avalanche Software. Leavitt announced his departure on social media Thursday night while saying he had "nothing but good things to say about the game" and those who are working on the new project. He added that he'd share a more detailed account of his departure through his YouTube channel soon, a channel which recently became the subject of controversy when the topics of some of his past videos were highlighted.
Leavitt's two initial announcements shared on Twitter were that he'd left the studio and that he'd be sharing the YouTube video soon to better explain the situation. He followed up that first tweet soon afterwards by saying he "felt absolutely secure" in his position within the studio after some theorized it may not have been his decision to leave.
1. I have made the decision to part ways with Avalanche Software. I have nothing but good things to say about the game, the dev team, and WB Games.
2. I will be releasing a YouTube Video about this soon on my channel.
— Troy Leavitt (@Troylus_true) March 5, 2021
"To clarify: I felt absolutely secure in my position," Leavitt said in his follow-up tweet. "However, I still wanted to resign for reasons that I will explain in that forthcoming video. I'm in excellent spirits and very pleased with my relationship with WB and Avalanche."
His departure from the Hogwarts Legacy developer conspicuously follows a controversy from two weeks ago today when Leavitt's YouTube channel that'll host that upcoming video was spotlighted. A sampling of the channel's library shared by journalist Liam Robertson included video titles such as "In Praise of Cultural Appropriation," "The Injustice of Social Justice," and "The Legacy of Anita's Tropes Versus Women," that last one being a reference to Anita Sarkeesian who's also the subject of several of his other videos. Gamergate and related subjects were also topics of discussion throughout his library.
Leavitt has not yet said if his quitting Hogwarts Legacy was related to the recent attention his YouTube channel has gotten, but that and more details will likely be addressed in the video that's to come.
Whatever Leavitt's reasoning for leaving may be, the latest Hogwarts Legacy development is yet another chapter in an already rough history for the game. The new game set in the Harry Potter universe came under fire first for its connections to series creator and author J.K. Rowling who was prominently met with backlash in June 2020 for anti-trans tweets. Developers have had to comment on the matter since then to say the author was not "directly" involved with the game. It was announced last month that the game had been delayed and would now be releasing some time in 2020.
