“Sony made the worst mistake.” Employees accuse Firesprite and new leaders of toxicity and discrimination after PlayStation purchase – Horizon: Call of the Mountain

Eurogamer media has launched an investigation into Firesprite, the creators of Horizon Call of the Mountain, in which the developers accuse the studio of a toxic work culture

According to a Eurogamer investigation, the study Fire Spriteacquired Sony in 2021 suffered numerous layoffs and reductions amid allegations of toxic work culture which, apparently, has been brewing for many months. Some staff have spoken anonymously to reveal what all the problems facing the Liverpool team are.

Firesprite, developers of Horizon Call of the Mountain for PS VR2, have undergone numerous changes over the past couple of years. One of those mentioned was overload some employees, which occurred after a change in management that led to staff dissatisfaction. This new guidance comes from XDevSony support studios, and were accused of sexual discrimination and by age, although an internal investigation confirmed that this was an alleged “misunderstanding.”

This work environment wasn’t the worst, layoffs had recently caused a lot of damage to the Liverpool studio as the Twisted Metal game as a service would have been cancelled. Moreover, Eurogamer confirms that in addition to this there was also working on another great game Sony franchises in parallel.

Firesprite accused of toxic work environment

It is also reported that many employees leave work immediately after receiving bonus payment

as a holdover in October last year. This money is often given to talented developers to stay with the studio as an incentive for them to stay after the merger. And it appears that some employees quit their jobs after receiving this.

On the other hand, on Glasdoor (a job portal for meeting companies) they read critics harsh statements from former employees towards management, such as a “culture of fear”toxic bullying culture“, “They only care about their money.” One source notes that the old Firesprite was disorganized, but what Sony changed after the purchase “ruffled a lot of feathers.”

Anonymous testimonies of some developers were also published, who asked not to be named so as not to harm their careers. Some believe that the changes were necessary after purchasing the PlayStation, but others believe that Sony Corporate Vision and the changes he made were detrimental to the work environment. That is, the investigation points to a completely different study than before the acquisition.

Something that would be detrimental to the team’s leadership would be the death of one of the HR leaders who was not replaced, leaving a small group of HR specialists overseeing a huge study of approx. 300 workers. Moreover, they say that almost everyone Founders of Firesprite They left the company. The reasons for his departure are unknown, but internally it was assumed that they were forced from Sony.

Regarding the latter, they cite the example of Graham Ankers, a former studio director who spoke openly about Firesprite’s long-term future in meetings but left soon after. For this reason, many called this exit “incredible.” new chapters XDev were the main architects of this project. toxic environment. Staff describe them to Eurogamer as “tyrants”, “hooligans”etc.

“Trust has been lost,” commented an anonymous source. 13 complaints were received. sexual discrimination and age against these two directors. In theory, an internal investigation showed that this was all a “misunderstanding”, but they say that there were developers ready to sue

and let’s move on. Presumably, these people received payment from Sony, reports Eurogamer.

The Sony Firesprite purchase did not have a positive impact on the work environment.

To summarize, in the short term, Sony’s purchase of Firesprite is expected to bring more pressure from employees with the goal of launching Horizon Call of the Mountain for PS VR2, but in the long term the environment would deteriorate. “Sony has made the worst mistake possible buying a studio and immersing yourself in it to the point where you may find yourself in a death spiral and unable to complete any of the projects you are working on,” one employee said anonymously.

On the other hand, it is mentioned that Firesprite was working on several projects in parallel and there was no adequate management. “There was a lot of pressure on the team, not just create a game, but also change platforms and systems. The scale wasn’t going to change, the quality wasn’t going to change and the date wasn’t going to change.” For this reason, the other video games did not make much progress, many personnel were transferred to Call of the Mountain and there were no important progress in other games.

There were internal complaints, but Firesprite’s new management failed to recognize and resolve them, despite layoffs. “Firesprite seems to appreciate protecting your public speech about the concerns of the team that remains there. There are also positive comments, as it is mentioned that there was a “strong strive for inclusivity“. However, given this supposed situation, there are not many good things that could be salvaged. Some former employees describe Firesprite as “sunken ship“.

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