Obsidian has produced some legendary role-playing games like Fallout, which Chris Avellone, game designer and co-founder of the studio, was involved in. But now he is calling for a lawsuit against his former studio.
What kind of developer is this? Chris Avellone founded the development studio Obsidian in 2003 with some colleagues, where he was responsible for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II and Fallout, among other titles. His last project at Obsidian was the role-playing game Pillars of Eternity before he left the studio in 2015. In 2018, Obsidian was acquired by Microsoft and is now part of the Xbox Game Studios.
Now, Avellone has called in a post for his former studio to be sued for possible discrimination in their hiring practices.
Avowed is set to be the next big role-playing game.
Developer indirectly accuses his former studio of discrimination
What is the lawsuit about? On November 27, 2024, the developer addressed a post on X to anyone who had applied for an artistic position at Obsidian in recent years and had been rejected. They should hire a lawyer. Avellone believes:
- The hiring procedures at Obsidian may have been illegal
- Since Obsidian is a Microsoft studio, those affected could have a chance of receiving a lot of money: According to Avellone, the plaintiffs might not have to “apply for a job again.”
- The developer even promises that lawyers know how much the case is worth and might offer their services at particularly good conditions.
In his post, Avellone refers to “current news.” This likely refers to the discussion around a post from 2020 in which Matt Hansen, the art director of the upcoming Obsidian role-playing game Avowed, offered portfolio evaluations and job consultations to black artists. He wanted to help them replace him one day because there are too many “grizzled white guys” in the industry (via archive.today).
The accusation now is that Hansen preferentially hired people based on their ethnicity and unlawfully discriminated against white individuals. We have asked Obsidian for a statement on this matter and will add it as soon as we receive it.
The Obsidian co-founder explains in another post that an art director is indeed involved in the hiring processes of a studio (via X).
Users find post after a discussion about pronouns
What is behind this? Obsidian is currently working on Avowed, which is set to be the next big role-playing game. For MeinMMO author Max, it could even fill the gap that Skyrim left. But right now, there is mainly significant excitement surrounding the game.
Opinion leaders like former developer Mark Kern, who now goes by “Grummz” on X to criticize the supposedly “woke gaming industry” of the West, have apparently targeted Avowed as the next target.
Kern had advocated for boycotting games regardless of their quality if they include pronouns. He shared a screenshot of an Avowed preview, showing that the player character has the trait “he/him” (via X).
X owner Elon Musk subsequently declared pronouns in fantasy games to be “unacceptable” and announced his intention to found his own gaming studio.
In the wake of the discussion, Matt Hansen, the art director of Avowed, stated that his goal was to annoy Elon Musk with his game. He cannot believe that it actually worked.
Users then found the post from 2020. Hansen has since cleaned out his X account.
However, Avellone emphasizes in his post that his call to sue Obsidian has nothing to do with his personal political views. He believes that the industry should not tolerate any form of discrimination in hiring processes, regardless of the reason.
The gaming industry faced layoffs and studio closures in 2024, leading to uncertainty among those working or wanting to work in this field. Allegations of injustices in hiring processes could therefore weigh particularly heavily. However, layoffs remain a major topic, as demonstrated by the recent wave of layoffs at Activision Blizzard: Update on the layoffs at Activision Blizzard until the end of 2024: 3 locations are affected
