Sony is firing back in court in the ongoing lawsuit between Bungie and former Marathon director Christopher Barrett. The Bungie veteran sued the studio in late 2024 after he was fired over alleged misconduct. He called the investigation a “sham” in his lawsuit. Now Sony has responded and published some creepy text messages Barrett sent to female employees.
In March 2024 Barrett, Bungie’s executive creative director at the time, was fired following an internal investigation into claims that he had sent inappropriate and “disturbing” messages to multiple subordinate female employees at the studio behind Destiny and Halo. Barrett sued in retaliation in December 2024. In the suit he called Bungie’s investigation a “sham,” denied committing any fireable offenses, and suggested that Sony terminated his job as part of a ploy to deny him more than $40 million that he otherwise would have been paid due to Sony buying Bungie in 2022. Last week, Sony filed its own legal response and shared evidence of Barrett’s texts to multiple women.
As reported by Game File on February 19, Sony’s 128-page court filing includes nine text messages Barrett allegedly sent female employees at Bungie. Sony’s lawyers say that these messages show a “pattern of misconduct.” The document was filed last week, according to Game File.
In one message Barrett asks a female Bungie employee, “Are you still in PJs?” and “[I]s it like a button down top and bottoms? Sweatpants? Lulu lemons?”
In another message, Barrett called a woman the “Holy Grail” and added:
I’m not hitting on you. I hope it doesn’t feel like that. I’m married. But I can be honest. You are the .000001 and better be treated like that forever.
The woman replied that her boyfriend treats her “very well” and the former Bungie director replied: “He better cuz I would hit on you if he wasn’t.”
A different woman working at Bungie claims Barrett called her while drunk late at night and spent hours with her on FaceTime, despite the female employee asking him to respect her boundaries. At one point he allegedly took his phone into his bedroom and said, “I can’t believe I am lying in bed talking to [VICTIM 1].” She abruptly hung up.
Barrett’s lawyer sent this statement over to Game File:
Sony continues to disingenuously cherry pick text messages and alleged conversations and make unsupported and conclusory statements to defame Christopher and justify terminating him to avoid paying him what he was owed under his employment agreements. It is telling that Sony does not include the full text messages as exhibits, or the full content of these conversations, and nothing in Sony’s response provides a legitimate legal or factual basis to terminate Christopher for cause.
“Christopher is confident that when all the evidence is presented, it will be clear that Sony engaged in a scheme to strip him of his role and the equity awards he earned for his 25 years of loyal service to the company,” said Barrett’s lawyer.
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