Respawn Entertainment, the studio behind Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Titanfall, has called out the “harassment” its developers are receiving from some players.
Taking to Twitter, Respawn shared a statement that explains how “recently, we have seen increased harassment towards members of our development team.”
“We welcome community input, however the line between constructive feedback and the harassment of our dev team cannot be crossed,” the post continued.
“We want to remind our players that we have a zero tolerance policy for the threats and the harassment of our developers. We will take appropriate action to ensure the health and safety of our team,” Respawn added. “We love hearing feedback and will continue to work alongside our community to foster a respectful, collaborative environment, and uphold the competitive integrity of our game.”
— Respawn (@Respawn) September 22, 2022
The post received support from Destiny developer Bungie who said: “Standing against toxicity and harassment takes all of us working together to build healthier communities. We are with you in that effort.”
Back in June, Bungie filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Twitch streamer Luca Leone, also known as MiffysWorld, for cheating, reselling Destiny 2 assets and threatening Bungie employees. Some of the repeated threats involved mentions of burning down the studio’s offices, telling employees to “keep your doors locked” via their Twitter alias Inkcel.
Additional details include voicemail messages to employees which contained racist and homophobic slurs were revealed a month later.
I still remember the days of Black Ops 2 when the devs got death threats because a sniper got nerfed in MP.
Crazy how far people will take things when it comes to video games. Just stop playing the damn games if you’re so unhappy. https://t.co/LIYR77xVMa
— Reedy (@TheReedyRainbow) September 23, 2022
Following that, community manager Dylan “dmg04” Gafner said on Reddit that Bungie has reduced public interactions with Destiny 2 fans due to the “real threats towards our people and our studio.”
Sony Santa Monica was also forced to post a statement following harassment of its developers over the unannounced release date for the upcoming God Of War: Ragnarok.
“Our fans inspire us but that passion should not be toxic nor come at the expense of any human being’s dignity,” the studio wrote.
In other news, EA Sports has revealed the full soundtrack for FIFA 23, featuring songs by Gorillaz, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Phoenix and more.
