Earlier today, three separate French publications ran stories that alleged employees of the game development company Quantic Dream had reported racism, homophobia, and a toxic workplace environment during their time at the company. Representatives of Quantic Dream, the studio behind notable games like Detroit: Become Human and Heavy Rain, issued a statement today denying all allegations after founder David Cage publicly denied them himself — in less than eloquent ways.
Reports from Le Monde, Canard PC, and Mediapart all note instances of racism, homophobic comments, and sexual harassment at the hands of Cage and co-founder Guillaume de Fondaumière.
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Unfortunately, while Cage’s response vehemently denies these allegations, he uses the age-old “I have a minority friend” “You want to talk about homophobia?” Cage said in a statement to Le Monde. “I work with Ellen Page, who fights for LGBT rights. You want to talk about racism? I work with Jesse Williams, who fights for civil rights in the USA… Judge me by my work.”
This defense is greatly weakened by the fact that Cage and other employees reportedly created a database of over 600 images depicting minority collaborators and employees in demeaning ways. As described and shown on the Canard PC header banner, subjects of these images were photo-manipulated into sexual positions with homophobic slurs written on several. Some images are reportedly decorated to make employees look like Nazis. Another report details an instance when, after watching CCTV footage of a burglary at the company, Cage turned to a Tunisian employee and asked: “Is that your cousin?”
Quantic Dreams posted on Twitter soon after Cage’s statements were made public.
— Quantic Dream (@QUANTIC_DREAM) January 14, 2018
Stay tuned for updates as this story progresses.
Source: Eurogamer via Playstation Lifestyle
