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David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumière, the bosses of the developer of Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls Quantic Dream, successfully sued French newspaper Le Monde for defamation, after the outlet published allegations by studio members about an environment of toxic work.
A report from Solidaires Informatique, translated by Eurogamer, indicates that the Le Monde file had been weakened because it was not able to prove certain elements of its information without disclosing the anonymity of its sources.
Neither party has publicly commented on the judgment, and there is no word on the terms yet.
Mediapart, another French outlet sued by Quantic Dream for its reporting on the allegations, has been completely cleared. Separate libel cases by Quantic Dream as a company against Le Monde and Mediapart have also failed.
In May of this year, Solidaires Informatique reported on various elements of the lawsuit itself, some of which have been independently verified by GamesIndustry.biz. At one point, GI.biz reported that attorneys for Quantic Dream accused a journalist of writing their article detailing the working conditions “as revenge for [co-CEO] Guillaume de Fondaumière refusing them access to the VIP section of a Quantic Dream evening “.
At the time, Quantic Dream explained that he had sued the newspapers for “having published articles which, in our opinion, were not printed in good faith, nor with reasonable research or evidence, and which drew false conclusions which had considerably damaged the reputation and morale of the studio ”.
Eurogamer today contacted Le Monde and Quantic Dream for comment.
The controversy began in January 2018, when the French media Le Monde, Mediapart and Canard PC simultaneously published a joint report which reported on inappropriate behavior, crunch and a school culture involving sexist and racist jokes in the famous French studio. At the time, Quantic Dream was just finishing work on Detroit: Become Human, its third PlayStation console exclusively in its partnership with Sony.
Cage and de Fondaumière both strongly denied the allegations, saying they were “shocked” by the “rants” of former employees, and calling them “ridiculous, absurd and grotesque”. Stepping up its response to news reports, Quantic Dream then issued an official statement claiming the allegations were “defamation.” A few months later, she launched legal proceedings.
A particular point of contention was a cache of some 600 controversial photoshopped images of staff from 2013, some of which have been made public by the various publications. In July 2018, Quantic Dream lost a lawsuit against a former employee who resigned over offensive footage circulating in the studio.
In 2019, Quantic Dream announced that it will no longer be making exclusives on the PlayStation console. Numerous reports over the past weekend suggest the studio’s next project is a Star Wars game for Disney.
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