Naughty Dog Responds to Sexual Harassment Allegations

It's a very positive sign that people are speaking up in the wake of the Weinstein scandal. I wish him well and hope he wil get justice he deserves, if the allegations are true. He seemed to have gone through a lot since he left ND, so something clearly wasn't right.

"We have not found any evidence"

In my experience when company's or government agencies use this phrase, they usually haven't actually looked for evidence (in other words "no evidence has come to us").

At the same time it gives the impression that no harm was done. Whether that relates in this case or not who knows but take well-crafted comments like these with a pinch of salt in the real world.

I had a similar problem when I worked at Target, and when I brought it up to the HR Rep I was unaware that the person who was doing that to me and the HR Rep were best buddies. I ended up being demoted, got a pay cut, and they cut my hours in more then half. It was the exact definition of retaliation which Target claims they would never do, and not a single person would help me with it. Big companies will always try to cover themselves even if they're in the wrong, it seems.

The reported stuff is horrible and I'd feel sorry for Ballard, but when both parties make opposite claims on a pure "my word against yours" basis, you can only wait for more data from your uninformed perspective. I can't imagine why he would ever make up things like that, I have nothing to let me question or disprove the company's rebuke (the response is quite generic, but in the land of PR bureaucracy, form-lettering is the norm); trust is not a matter of flipping coins in such situations. This calls for more competent investigation (including police, yes) and it better be thorough. Because if this did happen, I don't even know where to begin on how much is horribly messed up here. Neither does the situation look good in case it didn't happen.

As far as I am concerned, I do not know the actual FACTS or the seen any 'evidence' to corroborate any side in this. Therefore I have NO intention to accuse or support one side of this.

All I hope is that accusations are handled maturely, responsibly and without bias. If there is any proof/accusation of Sexual Harassment, that they look into it seriously and deal with it appropriately. However, I do think that both the accuser and accused should not bewitch hunted and both sides supported equally whilst the investigation and evidence is acquired. Only then should appropriate action taken. Its a very serious accusation and peoples lives are affected - whether its 'true' or not, there is victim in all this - whether its the Accused being wrongfully targeted or the 'abused'
As none of us know the situation, the evidence or the people involved, we should not pass judgement either way.

If you do not look very hard then you will not find it. People need to boycott the Naughty Dog games if they treat people this way. I am now glad I did not buy the last game and will not be buying future games from them.

@dryrain - You better boycott all games then I'm pretty sure there is a bad apple at all companies.

I'm not saying give them a pass but how about we let this play out before throwing them under the bus.

Sexual harassment is rampant in Silicon Valley. It's the industry's not so secret secret. Just Google "sexual harassment silicon valley". The results are from days ago.

As for Ballard's allegations, it always comes down to who you're going to believe. When it's a male/female dynamic, it's termed as "He said/She said". Not sure if that's the case here, but the same principle applies. Both sides have their story. We're getting one side.

@get2sammyb @dryrain I understand where you are coming from but we still need proof. It still innocent till proven guilty. Before people get mad i dont say he is a lair.

@BAMozzy I think you made the best reply here and i agree 100%. A lot of people jump straight to he said so it must true.

Does anyone remember the John Leslie case were hundreds of women came forward. Then the case was dropped?

His career was devestated and hes never been found guilty of anything. But on this topic I think there needs to be a clear line of whats appropriate and inappropriate, obviously theres a whole spectrum of what could happen. Ive seen some instances were I think, hang on is that appropriate?

Is getting your bum pinched sexual assault for instance?

Is being chatted up unwanted sexual advances?

Im glad Im married this stuff hurts my head.

@dryrain I'm not boycotting crap until it's proven true and even than I'm not boycotting one of my favorite developers because of one bad egg. Let's also not forget that ND are one of the most progressive companies out there so I have a hard time believing this

Any allegation of sexual harassment MUST be taken seriously. Given the statements above, it is reasonable to assume that Naughty Dog had no knowledge of the harassment since Mr Ballard only refers to informing Sony HR.
Given what we know, the ball is clearly in Sony Playstation's court.
What is not known is whether Sony had any communication with ND before firing Mr Ballard.
I would surmise that with both companies, the decision (whoever it was that made the final call) about how to manage the situation was determined by what was best for both ND and Sony.
Regardless of the outcome, a formal investigation and the subsequent fallout would have damaged the reputation of both companies.
If the allegations are true, fearing the damage any investigation might have on their bottom line, Sony's reaction to fire Mr Ballard is understandable. Some might say protective corporate cowardice and greed trumps any integrity in investigating allegations and acting with justice and fairness.

@get2sammyb I had a look at the Eurogamer article. They say the statement came from Sony, not ND. "In a statement provided to Eurogamer, PlayStation said it had no record of the allegation."
Ok, just had a look at the ND blog and that states "We have not found any evidence of having received allegations from Mr. Ballard that he was harassed in any way at Naughty Dog or Sony Interactive Entertainment"
So that tallies with Mr Ballard's statement that he spoke to Sony HR and not Naughty Dog.
What is missing from this, as I originally said, is a statement from Sony, which itself might be worth considering.
The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

@BLP_Software ''Now given the nature of allegations, I seriously doubt its false''

I've seen people's lives destroyed because of false allegations. I'm with @BAMozzy on this. Never take any side in situations like this, because whether it's true or false, either way is a serious claim. I personally don't understand why he posts this on Facebook. Take it to court, not the internet.

@dark_knightmare2 Regardless of how a company might present itself, the decisions made by senior management always put the company first. I worked for a national children's charity. There was one guy they moved around from office to office each time a woman made an allegation of harassment against him.

@get2sammyb
Point taken but - ND say:
We have not found any evidence of having received allegations from Mr. Ballard that he was harassed in any way at Naughty Dog or Sony Interactive Entertainment"
Mr Ballard says he reported it to Sony. ND talk about harassment at ND or SIE. Their wording does not clarify whether or not they heard from SIE about the allegations.

@dryrain By the time their next game finally arrives, you'll probably have forget about this story.

@dryrain Also, shouldn't you boycott all games published by Sony since according to this guy, it was their HR department who fired him and tried to keep his mouth shut? How about boycotting their products all together? How about waiting for more information before choosing sides?

Some of the things to come out of the weinstein scandal has been pretty bad, but some has me scratching my head. This guy needs to get some professional help if he can't tell the truth in interviews 18 months later. Interviewers tend to read body language well, and when he waffles on the question "why are you no longer employed at Naughty Dog?" it's more than likely a big red flag to them.

Best not to assume one way or the other on this, especially at this stage.

Not that it really matters, but I'd be very curious to know the gender of the alleged harasser. It's so rare for male victims of any kind of sexual harassment to come forward about it, and seemingly even more rare to hear about instances where the harasser is a woman. Either way I think as long as these allegations are true, it's great that Ballard is speaking up about his experiences and I hope others in this situation so the same.

It would be foolish for this gentleman to print such a statement, if there were no evidence of his grievance on file with his former employer. Surely it could be construed as an act of libel (or whatever the US equivalent may be) and he would be in a very treacherous position from a legal stand point. I can only assume something has gone on; however, we will never know the full story and nor should we. This is a legal issue between an employer and employee and should be dealt with in the appropriate manner. From my experience, employers often try and offer a cash incentive/disclaimer during the termination process, particularly if it is a redundancy or suchlike. I personally feel it's wrong and unethical, but unfortunately, it's the way of the world these days. Having brought this matter to the public eye may certainly bring about some investigations I would expect.

@ToddlerNaruto Well considering they cut me down to 4 hours a week, I had no choice but to find better employement... But the next place I worked at I had a mild stroke at, and they let me go. S'BEEN A ROUGH COUPLE YEARS.

@3MonthBeef He could say "I was fired because I made a complaint about sexual harassment and they tried to pay me off to remain silent", he doesn't necessarily have to name someone. He has to have some kind of documentation about the $20k payoff, if he doesn't, he's in over his head unfortunately.

One of the main reasons why when a superior makes a verbal promise to me I always come back with "I need that in writing before I agree to it" so they can't just say "I never said that" if an issue comes up down the road.

@adf86 I came here to say this. Innocent until proven guilty should be the standard for every situation. Believe it or not there are many different reasons why he would make it up and of course there are many ways it could have been covered up.

As a very current victim of a habitual liar who still to this day drags my name through mud with no evidence to back it up and with the only reason to make themselves look better... I find it hard to believe claims until they are proven.

He should settle this on court with proof rather than speak on twitter/facebook since it will become he/she said.

Sending email is pretty good thing to do to cover your own self, one of my friend usually email his boss for confirmation if his boss ask him to do something that's not entirely in the best interest of the company, so my friend has proof if someone from the company ask him why he does that. I think ballard should email his boss to complain (saying he doesn't like the harrasment) first rather than go straight to hr.

@Fenriswolf- Dude, not cool.

I cant believe this has happened in one of the worlds most loved game developers HQ.
It isnt acceptable in a workplace its not acceptable in day to day life, I just do not get why people try their luck when they know its never going to happen. People in power trying their luck ewww makes my skin crawl

The PR 101 response for 'crap, why didn't you just stay silent?' Names would always be nice in something like this too but if we're talking big industry names, it'd be understandable why Ballard may feel comfortable coming forward with some of his experience but not giving full details. If this did happen, hopefully he gets things solved in his favor. Until then, I'll keep enjoying ND's games. I will say though, my eyebrows were raised about the company a few years back with the unnecessary Amy Hennig falling out so I wouldn't be surprised if ND isn't the wonderful perfect place the studio, Sony and the hardcore PlayStation fanboys all act like it is.

@dark_knightmare2
For what it's worth, a lot of 'regressive' behavior is carried out by supposed 'progressive' people. ND is a pretty big studio, it's entirely possible there's one jerk who thought it was ok to do some f'ed up things to a co-worker.

I agree about a boycott being over the top, at least at this point it doesn't make sense because we don't know the full story. If this gets blown up and it turns out some bad things are much more rampant at the company that you'd think, I could understand people never wanting to play their games again. It's a strange line for me, however, obviously it would be screwed up and I'd feel bad for the people effected but if there's a game I want to play, I'm going to play it. It's kind of like rooting for sports teams. Most of them have 2, 3, sometimes even more, idiots who did something totally wrong. But I still watch and cheer on my favorite teams.

This is unfortunate. I spend my free time gaming in order to escape from the real world and it’s ever escalating controversy. Professional sports, domestic and international politics, the movie and music industry ... all filled with these types of stories. Gaming had been the last bastion against contamination by society’s soils.
Well, now I suppose there is no real escape.

@Th3solution
Well, there's always been real people behind the studios and games.

'We haven't found any evidence'
In other words we don't know for sure but we are not going to look into it because it could make us look bad

@Ypmud " I just do not get why people try their luck when they know its never going to happen".
Because many times, it does happen. From people looking for a promotion, people who are too afraid they might lose a job (that they can't afford to lose), fear of how other people are gonna treat them if they make the accusations, etc.

Really weak statement from Naughty Dog, IMO. I mean, I know that they've got to be SO careful about how and what they say, but it really does read like they just want to dodge the question , which isn't a great sign. I don't want it to affect my love of the studio's games - after all one person (or even a few bad individuals) shouldn't destroy the validity of the work that everyone else puts into a game. But it's very concerning and I'm interested to see how the case progresses.

Regardless of the outcome, or the truth of the matter, just hope Ballard is OK (or getting there) and feeling better in his life now. Having seen someone have a nervous breakdown at one of my older jobs I've seen how utterly destroyed someone can get in a very short space of time, and how long it takes to recover from that. It's absolutely awful and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

@SegaBlueSky
I have seen this kind of comment frequently and it makes me wonder, what kind of statement would you be happy with? If you had been wrongly accused of such a horrible crime on social media (which may well be the case in this instance) what would your statement look like?

As I have stated elsewhere, he should have made these allegations to the authorities, levelling such serious accusations via social media undermines the legitimacy of his claims in my opinion.

@Lovespuds I know what you mean, and I tried to address that by acknowledging that ND have to be extremely careful how they respond to this. It's such a minefield. But sometimes the tone of statements like this comes across badly. @get2sammyb makes a good point too, so I'm not saying either of you are wrong by any means. The statement certainly serves its intended purpose, but the tone (by necessity) is hard to react to in some ways.

The social media thing is tricky too. On one hand I agree with you - this isn't the best way to address the issue for so many reasons. But Likewise social media is a powerful tool that can prove useful in the right circumstances, and there is an argument for making these kinds of issues more visible in the public domain - as we've seen with Harvey Weinstein. It's complex and there isn't an easy answer.

@SegaBlueSky
Social media has it's place in modern society however, if you genuinely wish to address such a serious and moreover, criminal grievance then you go to the authorities.

What you don't do is make what are, at the moment, baseless accusations on social media.

Who can say who is telling the truth, it's their personal business to work out in court if needed, I hope the truth is uncovered sooner rather than later for all involved. Can we get back to discussing games please or is this a soap opera now?....

I think even if ND and Sony knew the truth, they still wouldn't want it known publicly, they would be more worried about their reputation, hence why Sony wanted to silence the accuser by paying him $20K but of course we don't know if any if this is true until proven otherwise.

Reading both ‘statements’, there are two possibilities.

1. It’s true, and ND have buried or otherwise disposed of any evidence.

2. The guy feels he was fired unfairly and is seeking some kind of revenge.

Given their reputation to this point and comments on social media about equality and doing “the right thing”, my initial reaction would be to believe the second option. That is at least in part because if the first were the case, I find it difficult to believe that someone would keep quiet for that long, and then when they do choose to do something about it, do it on social media rather than going to the relevant authorities.

@Lovespuds I do agree with that, just saying that I can see why people go to it, and that - sometimes - adding public exposure and interest to a difficult situation can lead to more action being taken in the wider community. Like making certain industries more transparent, working towards forcing change in attitudes, etc.

I agree though, as a primarily legal/criminal matter, this particular situation should be handled well away from social media.

This is a hard situation, on one end she could be correct in that she was abused, but because of the prominence of the individual's position, it was pushed under the rug. On another end, its a whole lot of fluff. I feel if she felt she was victimized to have collected a reasonable amount of evidence prior to going to HR. It is hard for HR considering their position within an Organization to accurately determine who is more correct, with evidence based on word of mouth. If she had a recorded conversation, I feel she'd have been able to make a reasonable case and bring the issue to light. But that's my two cents. Good luck to her, hopefully, she is able to move past this issue, and isn't blacklisted from the community.

@ToddlerNaruto Current job was good, then was bad for about 5 months when they moved me to a new department, but now it's good again because I'm back to my original department. Also, I can talk (mostly) properly again which be good, and I'll be moving back up home soon-ish, so that is also good!