Report: Scavengers Studio co-founder allegedly fumbled, shouted at employees



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According to a detailed report in Gamesindustry.biz, Scavengers Studio Simon Darveau has been accused of an array of toxic and abusive behavior by employees of Scavenger Studio, the makers of The Darwin project and the next match Season.

In Rebekah Valentine’s report, nine current and former employees of the Montreal-based game development studio described a toxic work environment fostered by studio creative director Simon Darveau and activated by CEO Amelie Lamarche. (Lamarche was Darveau’s romantic partner when the couple founded the studio.)

The pattern described by the employees is as follows: Simon Davreau and other high-level male employees are said to have regularly engaged in degrading behavior, especially towards the women on the team.

This behavior ranged from sexist remarks to physical trial and error. On one occasion, a developer allegedly said that it “was not realistic” that Seasons protagonist (a woman named Abby) shouldn’t be able to play the guitar because “the guitar was too complicated for a woman”.

The behavior specifically attributed to Davreau is all the more damning. A story relayed to GI.biz says that Darveau allegedly had an affair with an employee, who simply stopped showing uip at work after Lamarche found out. Another is that Darveau explained his behavior to staff by “comparing himself to a dog in heat – unable to control himself”.

Darveau would also get drunk and noisy at company parties. At a party in 2019, multiple sources claimed he touched and grabbed women who worked at the company.

All of this behavior was apparently activated by Lamarche, who, according to several employees, could not be impartial at many points in the company’s history because she had a romantic relationship with Darveau.

The stories of Darveau’s alleged behavior just keep going on and apparently include him in a number of screaming matches with employees and even an Xbox rep.

It should be noted that Simon Darveau’s former company was Ubisoft Montreal, where he was the design director on Assassin’s Creed III. Reports of an allegedly mysoginistic work environment at Ubisoft were a huge story that became public last year.

In response to Valentine’s requests, Scavengers Studio set out policies that it would enforce in the future with changes to its corporate code of conduct and the process for reporting sexual harassment. He told GI.Biz that “certain elements [their] the ratings are false, somewhat disproportionate or lacking in important elements. “

The company did not specify which “evaluations”.

For more on the allegations regarding Scavengers Studio and how these developments impact their upcoming game, be sure to read Valentine’s full report.

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