According to an extensive report on Gamesindustry.biz, Scavengers Studio Simon Darveau has been accused of a series of toxic and abusive behaviors by employees of Scavenger Studio, makers of The Darwin Project and the next game Season.
In the Rebekah Valentine report, nine current employees and former employees of the Montreal-based game development studio described a toxic work environment promoted by creative director Simon Darveau and empowered by CEO Amelie Lamarche. (Lamarche was Darveau’s romantic partner when the duo founded the studio.)
The pattern described by employees is as follows: Simon Davreau and other high-ranking officials are said to regularly engage in humiliating behavior, especially towards women on the team.
This behavior varied from sexist observations or groping to physics. On one occasion, a developer said it was “unrealistic” that Seasons the protagonist (a woman named Abby) should not know how to play the guitar because “the guitar was too complicated for a woman”.
The behavior specifically attributed to Davreau is even more damning. A story relayed to GI.biz says that Darveau allegedly had an affair with an employee, who simply stopped showing up for work after Lamarche found out. Another was that Darveau explained his behavior to employees “by comparing himself to a dog in heat – unable to control himself”.
Apparently, Darveau also got drunk and made noise at company parties. At a party in 2019, several sources claimed he touched and grabbed women who worked at the company.
All of this behavior was apparently made possible by Lamarche, who several employees said was not impartial at many points in the company’s history because she was romantically involved with Darveau.
Stories about Darveau’s alleged behavior continue, and include him apparently getting into a series of screaming fights with employees and even an Xbox representative.
It’s important to note that Simon Darveau’s former company was Ubisoft Montreal, where he was design director at Assassin’s Creed III. Reports of an alleged mysterious work environment at Ubisoft were a huge story that went public last year.
In response to Valentine’s Day questions, Scavengers Studio defined the policies that would move forward with changes to the company’s code of conduct and the process of reporting sexual harassment. He told GI.Biz that “certain elements in [their] the evaluations are false, somewhat disproportionate or without important parts. “
The company did not specify which “assessments”.
For more information on the allegations about Scavengers Studio and how these developments are impacting your next game, read the full Valentine’s Day report.