Naughty Dog Denies Former Employee's Sexual Harassment Claim
Video game developer Naughty Dog has responded to a former employee's claim that he experienced sexual harassment while working for the company.
Shortly after multiple women working in Hollywood confirmed that they have been sexually harassed by movie executive Harvey Weinstein, former Naughty Dog employee, David Ballard, shared his own experience of abuse a couple of years ago.
Ballard, who worked on some of the most popular Naughty Dog titles including "Uncharted" and "The Last of Us," came forward and shared his experience through a series of Twitter posts.
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He said "a lead" allegedly harassed him back in 2015, which later on made his job at Naughty Dog "extremely toxic." He then added that the situation led to a mental breakdown while at work the following year where the "Sony Playstation [human resources] became involved."
Unfortunately, according to Ballard, he was immediately fired "the next day" after telling the HR officials about the alleged sexual harassment.
"They tried to silence me by offering $20,000 if I signed a letter agreeing to the termination as well as to not discuss it with anyone. I declined to sign. I have been unemployed for 17 months since," Ballard added.
To Naughty Dog's defense, the company issued a statement denying Ballard's claims. The video games developer said: "We have not found any evidence of having received allegations from Mr. Ballard that he was harassed in any way at Naughty Dog or Sony Interactive Entertainment."
Naughty Dog maintained that it handles any reports of sexual harassments "very seriously" and that such acts "have no place" in the company. It added that both companies give importance to every staff member and that it tries to maintain "a safe, productive workplace environment that allows us all to channel our shared passion for making games."
Apart from Ballard's account, a Twitter reply to his post claimed that she was also harassed at Naughty Dog "for months" by someone who was now affiliated with Niantic. However, the said tweet has since been taken down but can be viewed through a screenshot shared in NeoGAF.
