Controversy breaks out at IGN: pressure, abuse and unfounded rumors against the authors of The Last of Us 2

From Naughty Dog they respond in favor of the workers, ensuring that there are no grudges involved.

Throughout the weekend, numerous voices from all corners of the video game industry have decided to raise their voices to denounce cases of harassment that have gone unpunished in recent years. The scope of these statements has reached content creators, developers like Chris Avellone , and also the video game press , where journalists and even creatives have suffered the consequences.

More specifically, GameSpot analyst Kallie Plagge has written a detailed thread on Twitter talking about her experience working with IGN under the leadership of Tal Blevins, co-founder of the portal, and later Steve Butts. Plagge talks about abusive control, bad manners and , among other things. Mitch Dyer, who came to EA Motive after working with IGN for four years, joins the previous one to share his experience , which apparently splashed onto the Naughty Dog team at one point.

According to Dyer, executives forced ill-founded articles under his name, including one (misrepresented) that spoke about writer Amy Hennig’s departure from Naughty Dog. They also published against the opinion of their workers a nonsense about the cancellation of The Last Guardian, among other things. The journalist complements his words by directly quoting some of the most recognizable ND faces affected by the matter.

“For Neil Druckmann [director of The Last of Us: Part II ] and Bruce Straley [former director on ND after TLOU and Uncharted 4], who got caught in the IGN hostile and toxic directive fray, I’m very sorry,” he says. the tweet. “I take responsibility for the fury, disgust, and disappointment you lived with back then, and I will never forgive myself for giving in to these manipulative monsters.” It is not clear if the ND team took any kind of reprimand for this.

Both creatives have responded directly to Dyer on the same social network with messages of support , yes: “wow, man. I’m not going to fool you … I spent a lot of time angry about this. I appreciate that you explained the truth,” says Druckmann. “Please keep in mind that I don’t hold a grudge and wish you well. I’m sorry for what you’ve been through.” Straley signs a similar comment : “Thanks Mitch. I appreciate you commenting on this. It looks like you were in a tough situation. Sorry. I honestly learned from it, too. Most ‘news’ under company internal policies has a 20 % of truth and 1000% more of conditions than Twitter (or fans) can encompass. We all grew up. Good luck. ”

Tal Blevins was seen by the original thread of Kallie Plagge apologizing “for having made her cry” and assuring that he would learn from his mistakes. Steve Butts does not appear to have left any comments on the subject on networks. Neither of them currently works at IGN.

Source: 3djuegos VG247

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BadSector is a seasoned journalist for more than twenty years. He communicates in English, Hungarian and French. He worked for several gaming magazines - including the Hungarian GameStar, where he worked 8 years as editor. (For our office address, email and phone number check out our impressum)

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