Okay 1, this situation sucks, if this information is true then they really need to clean up the management at the studio. What in the world is going on over there.
2… I remember when this situation was first teased a few months (?) back, but without any detail, and people were 100% confident that it had to do with generative AI. People were convinced that the issue was AI replacing artists and that was considered to be rock solid fact. Now the details are out and it’s purely about interpersonal politics and grudges and has nothing to do with AI.
Yeah, that’s something I vaguely remember and the guy didn’t really say anything on whatever the situation was at the time.
I just hope that the unionization that’s already taking place at Xbox advances further because interpersonal politics like these are things that it could help. As Microsoft’s human resources won’t be able to ignore or close these types of complaints.
If I recall correctly he just said at the time that he was improperly terminated and was prepping a lawsuit over an issue of “ethics" or something similar.
Even taking into account that we’re only hearing one side of the story, the fact that it escalated this far is a failure of management/HR. Whatever the original beef was, all they apparently did was throw gasoline onto the fire.
I’d say I’d reserve judgement, but most of the time these cases get settled so it’s unlikely we’ll learn the truth.
It’s in the claimant’s interests to throw every possible accusation into it to see what sticks, in the same way it’s in the company’s interest that HR follows all protocols regardless of the manager (which is why the HR investigation ones might fail as usually those are heavily documented with evidenced rationale of the decision to proceed or end the investigation).
It could be just something not fitting (sometimes people can’t work together well, no matter what), a bad / playing favourites manager or an awkward or under performing employee (who obviously isn’t going to see it that way) - de-escalation works to a degree but eventually these things come to a head unless you can separate the clashing personalities (for example).
Regardless, unless Microsoft are certain they’re in the right, all processes were followed and there’s nothing too sensitive or embarrassing that would be revealed at trial, it’s going to be settled as it’s cheaper than court costs - the offer nearly always can go high enough to avoid it and the claimants are warned every little screw up or bad thing they said may be aired at trial and impact future career prospects.
That’ll involve some terms (or even an NDA) to prevent further badmouthing of the company or poor references for the employee, so I’m guessing we’ll never learn the full story - unless it goes to trial as then all bets are off and it’ll get nasty
Switch won’t receive the update. No Switch 2. They better hope no other developers do this. Granted, this could be a delay situation, but Nintendo fans may suffer more of this news down the road.
