David Cage’s company took two publications to court, but only one of them was deemed to perform libel against Quantic Dream.

We previously discussed both the case and the ruling: according to the court, Le Monde has committed libel against Quantic Dream, but regarding Mediapart, they believed this site was innocent. Mediapart published a new blog post in French, revealing how they managed to stand up to the studio in the court.

The court ruled that Mediapart’s journalists “had, for each of the accusations, enough factual evidence.” No wonder they confirmed that Quantic Dream would not appeal the tribunal’s decision. What were the allegations? The studio was accused of financial malpractice, faking several employees’ dismissals to get monetary compensation. The studio’s co-founder, Guillaume de Fondaumière, was charged with using this method to receive compensation despite working at the company.

The ruling claims that Mediapart brought evidence proving “the reality of Guillaume de Fondaumière’s dismissal,” providing proof that after this faked dismissal, he not only received a salary raise, he also got a compensation payment of 127180 euros (148560 USD). Keep in mind that Quantic Dream had previously contested taking advantage of this practice. In other words, the studio lied all this time!

The tribunal ruled that Mediapart’s original article, published in 2018, “represented a legitimate informative goal, and even served the common good,” confirming that the journalists did not have “personal acrimony” towards Quantic Dream. The publication respected the “contradictory principle” (included in the French law) by interviewing David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumière for their article, while also giving a platform to current and former Quantic Dream employees as well as union representatives to have their words heard.

So Cage’s team makes the best move by not appealing, as it seems that Mediapart has done a spectacular job and research to provide the audience about what happened within Quantic Dream. Investigative journalism at its finest!

Source: Gamesindustry