Just Cause Studio Employees Call for Change Amid Year-Long Battle Over Controversial Hire

ign.com:

After months of back and forth between employees and management, Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios – not to be confused with Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalanche Software – has published a public apology to its employees for its mishandling of a controversial hire.

The full statement can be read here under the section titled "Our Journey", and includes the following:

While Avalanche didn't go into the specific reasons for adding this apology to its website, IGN has spoken to a number of sources familiar with the situation at the company over the last few weeks, and who have shared more details on how Avalanche got here. According to their accounts, Avalanche's apology comes more than a year after the company hired a high-level individual who had been publicly accused of inappropriate workplace behavior toward female employees at his former company. IGN has verified the public allegations against the employee in question, but is choosing not to identify him here.

But while our sources say this person's hiring was the catalyst of their frustration, their real conflict ultimately became less with the individual in question and more with the company itself. They say that Avalanche management and HR repeatedly avoided engaging with their concerns about the company's hiring processes, dismissed feelings of discomfort from those in the company who had experienced workplace harassment in past jobs, and ignored requests for transparency on how Avalanche planned to keep employees safe going forward.

Now, over a year later, our sources tell us that Avalanche's willingness to acknowledge the matter at all is due to an overwhelming internal pushback against perceived attempts to downplay a situation that made many internally feel