Allegations of sexual harassment were levied at writer Chris Avellonee by multiple women recently, and various developers that were working with the writer have cut ties with him in their wake.
Avellone, who has been involved with projects such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Prey, and others, has been working in a contract capacity with various studios since his departure from Obsidian Entertainment in 2015.
Avellone was serving as a writer on the upcoming Dying Light 2, but developer Techland recently issued a statement on Twitter, stating that in light of the sexual harassment allegations against him, they have “decided to end our cooperation.”
Paradox Interactive – publishers of the upcoming Hardsuit Labs-developed Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 – also provided a statement to Gamasutra, saying that Avellone “briefly worked with the Bloodlines 2 writing team early in the development of the game” but that following “an iterative creative process, […] none of his contributions remain in the game.”
Spanish indie developer Gato Studio – who had been working with Avellone on their upcoming RPG The Waylanders – have also issued a statement on Twitter, saying that the writer is no longer associated with the studio or with the project. They added that all of the content he provided “will be assessed as development progresses.”
You can read the studios’ statements below.
Here's the statement regarding our cooperation with Chris Avellone: pic.twitter.com/ozLXZdVPZw
— Techland (@TechlandGames) June 22, 2020
The team here at Gato Salvaje spent the past few days reading the stories shared online and reflecting. We have prepared the following statement with regards to the allegations made against Chris Avellone. pic.twitter.com/GTPjJcXfOs
— Gato Studio (@GatoStudioGames) June 22, 2020
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