Fan-favorite Batman Arkham developer Rocksteady has been receiving complaints about sexual harassment and sexist behavior among its workforce for the past two years, and is only now starting to address it in a series manner. The London-based studio has drawn criticism for its portrayal of female characters in the past, and now it seems its issues go far deeper than anyone could have thought.
Recently, Rocksteady has been making headlines with news of its latest DC-based game, titled debate the merits of a game centered around the troubled band of reformed villains, Rocksteady itself is faced with some very shocking allegations spanning the past few years.
Last Thursday, a former Rocksteady employee came forward to Guardian with a letter complaining about numerous acts of sexual harassment and other inappropriate conduct. According to this letter, which dates back to November 2018, these acts ranged from “discussing a woman in a derogatory or sexual manner with other colleagues” and “unwanted advances, leering at parts of a woman’s body, and inappropriate comments in the office” to “slurs regarding the transgender community." The employee who reported all of this, who chose to remain anonymous, says that Rocksteady responded to these accusations with little more than a single hour-long seminar in the years since its higher-ups were made aware of them.
This has resulted in several of the affected employees leaving, the woman who shared the damning information included. In the wake of Thursday’s report, a Rocksteady spokesperson has recently come forward with promises of new initiatives to help combat this kind of toxic misconduct, stating that the company is “more ionate than ever to continue to develop our inclusive culture, and we are determined to stand up for all of our staff.”
This news comes as part of a larger discussion regarding gender discrimination and sexual misconduct in the video gaming industry over the past few months. At the forefront of this is harassment from players in-game since their online FPS launched in June.
Sexism, harassment, and bigotry have no place in the video game industry (or any field of work for that matter), so these allegations against Rocksteady are very unfortunate. Making the issue worse is the fact that Rocksteady has known about such things happening for little over two whole years with only the bare minimum of action being taken in response. Thankfully, the Batman Arkham developers have now pledged to do more to protect its workers, but it really should have been doing so from Day One.
Source: The Guardian
