David Cage has gone to bat for his studio as he responded to allegations that Quantic Dream has an unhealthy and inappropriate work culture. He has previously described the allegations as a "smear campaign". Cage responded via an interview with Edge magazine, giving him an in-depth chance to talk about the allegations, which is published in this month's issue of the UK publication (thanks to for spotting).
"I don't think we had an aggressive attitude," he told Edge. "When you're accused of things that go against everything you believe in, everything you've done in your life, it hurts. It went beyond just attacking the studio culture".
He continued: "Of course, like any human organisation, we are not perfect by any means. But are we the kind of studio that was described? Our employees have said repeatedly: it's not true. Can we improve? Yes. Have we made mistakes in the past? Probably. But we had to do something about what was being said. We were so hurt by specific allegations that we know are wrong or false, that we had to defend ourselves. We wanted people to hear our voice".
Back in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:March 2018, French press outlets Canard PC, Le Monde, and Mediapart published reports that Quantic Dream's work culture involved crunch, abusive language, use of pornography, among other alleged toxic elements. One apparent incident includes an employee Photoshopping an image of a co-worker onto the bodies of Nazis and semi-nude women. The studio went on to release a statement claiming it remained "supportive, safe and respectful of everyone".
David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumière 💟went on to take libel action against the French publications. They successfully sued Le Monde for libel, as it was unable to prove aspects of its reporting without revealing its sources. However, Quantic Dream lost separate libel claims against Mediapart and Le Monde.
In the Edge interview, Cage said the Nazi and nude images mentioned above were "unacceptable" and that the situation was dealt with in under two hou🅰rs. "I do not be𝓡lieve we have ever been a toxic company," he added.
🍌"We have never held these horrible values,"𝓀 he continued. "Since the start 25 years ago, the company has always been based on humanist values of inclusivity. We have always championed diversity. You can see this through the games we make".
The studio is known for its narrative-heavy games that often deal with ambitious and adult themes. Its games include Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and Detroit: Become Human. In the rest of Edge's interview, Cage denied he made homophobic or misogynistic remarks at his workplace, accusations which have been levelled against him, and also denied Quantic Dream has a crunch culture.
It's an in-depth interview in which David Cage vigorously defends both himself and his studio. But like his games, somewhere, out there, perhaps the truth is waiting to be discovered. Quantic Dream's next game is Star Wars Eclipse, but the Edge interview also noted the studio is becoming multi-project so we can perhaps expect another announcement sometime in the not too distant future.