Former Destiny 2 and Marathon director Chris Barrett is suing Sony Interactive Entertainment. He claims that his firing for alleged inappropriate behaviour (detailed in a March Bloomberg report) was a pretence to avoid paying the $50 million he was owed under his employment agreement following Bungie's acquisition by SIE. Barrett is further seeking $100 million in damages and other substantial sums owed due to retention agreements and various compensations.
This story broke ahead of The Game Awards (the author, former news director Kat Bailey, no longer works for IGN; games media moves quickly) and was thus overshadowed, but a fairly extraordinary document has today come to light. Connected independent journalist Stephen Totilo has been sifting through the 81-page lawsuit, unearthing an equity report that shows Barrett was set to make a staggering amount of money from Sony's $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie: $84 million in total, $35 million once the deal closed (which Barrett presumably received), and another $45 million due to him, had he not been fired.
It remains to be seen what happens with Barrett's case, whether Sony did try and avoid paying out the many millions owed, or whether one or both parties are willing to settle. Still, the staggering sums of money involved are certainly eye-opening. We don't know what a good game director is worth, but in light of the more than 220 Bungie employees laid off in the last year, we can't help but wonder how many of those roles were eliminated to help cover the various vested stock options, RSAs, and RSUs owed to management.