Posted in: Games, Rocksteady Studios, Video Games | Tagged: rocksteady, Rocksteady Studios, sexism, sexual harassment

Rocksteady Staffers Accuse Studio Of Harassment & Failed Response

In a scathing report this morning, former staffers of Rocksteady Studios accused the company of failing to respond to harassment issues. The report was first made this morning by The Guardian, as they revealed details about how the majority of the women on staff penned a letter to studio heads raising concerns about several topics that, according to an anonymous source who shared the letter with the publication, have yet to be rectified and that people are still being harassed. Here's a snippet of the article.

The letter, dated November 2018 and signed by 10 of the company's 16 female staff at the time, raised complaints about behaviour including "slurs regarding the transgendered community" and "discussing a woman in a derogatory or sexual manner with other colleagues", and sexual harassment "in the form of unwanted advances, leering at parts of a woman's body, and inappropriate comments in the office". Since then it is claimed that the response has amounted to one training seminar, and that multiple signatories have left the company owing to the lack of action.

Apparently the letter was kept in secret this whole time because the company had a "devotion to secrecy" and for fear of retribution from the studio by removing their credits from the upcoming game Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. According to the report, after The Guardian reached out for comment, the studio addressed the letter for the first time and vowed to put in new initiatives. However, it appears that the problem with harassment and sexism in the office hasn't been addressed in nearly two years. So we're kind of curious what these "new initiatives" will be and if the studio will do any investigations into the matter much like Ubisoft has been doing with their own harassment claims.

Since the story came out, a video has been posted online by Kim MacAskill, who served as the Senior Script Writer for Rocksteady Studios during that period, as she came out as the person who wrote the initial letter. You can watch her video below as she talks about the situation and backs up part of the article saying that most of the staff there are incredible people, with a handful of unnamed staff who seem to be the root of the problem. We'll keep an eye on this story and see how it develops from here, but as of the time we're writing this article, the company has yet to provide a public response.

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