Back in the first half of 2018, shortly prior to the release of Detroit: Become Human, reports began surfacing claiming poor working conditions and inappropriate behaviour behind the scenes at Quantic Dream. At the time, one former employee had filed a lawsuit against the studio and now, a judge has ruled on the case, awarding the former employee compensation.
Quantic Dream is the studio behind the likes of Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human. Last year, a former IT manager at the studio filed a lawsuit against the studio citing homophobic, misogynistic and racist behaviour, brought on by a photoshopped image of the employee that circulated the office. While this former employee had sought €114,000 in damages, the judge on the case only partially agreed, awarding them a much smaller sum in monetary compensation.
— QUANTIC DREAM (@Quantic_Dream) December 2, 2019
Quantic Dream confirmed the ruling in a statement, saying that the Labour Court of Paris awarded €5,000 to the ex-employee in addition to €2,000 to cover legal costs. The judge ruled that the photoshopped image in question did not deteriorate working conditions but did say that management had a “security obligation” to put an end to this as the images were made on company premises.
Quantic Dream will not be appealing the ruling, opting to accept the judgement and pay the money. However, as reported by Mediapart, the ex-employee does want to appeal the ruling, bringing up a second edited image that was not considered during the initial ruling. With that in mind, we will be hearing more about this case in the months to come as the appeal gets underway.
KitGuru Says: Quantic Dream isn't out of the woods yet, as despite winning a partial ruling, the former employee wants the court to consider additional evidence and hear the case again. We'll keep an eye out for further updates on that front moving forward.