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what is up guys it's your boy Rick kakis
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and today we have got to talk about the
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Bungie situation because it's absolutely
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crazy so over the last weekend multiple
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different news stories broke involving
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Bungie and you may have heard of some of
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these but probably not all of them so
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what the heck is going on well let's get
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started the first thing that happened
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and we're kind of going to examine this
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chronologically uh is that Bungie is
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getting sued for two $200
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million this is coming from Chris
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Barrett as you can see seeking $200
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million in Damages in a lawsuit filed
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against Bungie and Sony and he wants to
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be reinstated as the franchise game
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director at Bungie so what the heck is
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going on here well Chris Barrett used to
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be the game director of marathon
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Bungie's next big upcoming game until he
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was fired amidst a slew of Mis conduct
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allegations specifically it said that
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eight female employees have accused
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Barrett of making them feel
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uncomfortable and of Behaving
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inappropriately towards them so this was
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a big story a few months ago I believe I
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did cover it on this channel and we just
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kind of talked about these misconduct
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allegations and he was replaced with the
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current Marathon director uh who is an
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ex Riot like higher up and Marathon has
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I I believe also o kind of taken a
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somewhat of a different direction in
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terms of development and focus after
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that big shakeup well Chris Barrett kind
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of comes back out of the Woodworks after
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these allegations and releases this
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statement specifically so this is on his
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personal Twitter account saying that
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well basically they unfounded attacks on
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my reputation and inuendo about what
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happened behind the scenes to caused me
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to be fired after 25 years of loyal
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service so kind of saying first of all I
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not behave with this misconduct and also
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because of how I was fired and all of
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the allegations my name was dragged
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through the mud now specifically again
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they also cite the fact that he was
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going to be paid around $50 million and
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because he was fired uh Bungie gets to
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avoid doing so now why is that is this
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guy just being paid an outrageous amount
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well you could make that argument but
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more specifically I believe that these
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are like stocks the guy's been at the
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company for 25 years like he says and he
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has a lot of bunge stock when BN when
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Sony purchased that Bungie stock it
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ballooned in value but because he was
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fired suddenly uh Bungie gets to avoid
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paying him out those stock options right
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so it Dives even more into absurdity
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when we take a look at the actual legal
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document uh that was submitted as part
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of this lawsuit so they say Barrett is
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simply is not a frat boy type while he
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certainly told the occasional joke and
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went out for beers with co-workers he
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went about his business creating art and
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worlds and building video games however
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the allegations in the IGN article were
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not shocking to him the culture that
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Barrett observed upon joining Bungie was
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alive and well including from senior
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managers and Executives for example the
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Behavior Uh that was known at Bungie
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included so basically he's referring to
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this IGN article that came out a while
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back again we covered it on this channel
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months and months ago talking about the
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inappropriate culture at Bungie right
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like even though Bungie puts out a
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facade of being very Progressive at the
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actual Studio apparently they're having
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a lot of problems uh with this kind of
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stuff and again this is essentially what
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the IGN article was saying summarized so
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here are some of the examples he gives
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in this lawsuit so a very senior Bungie
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executive texted Barrett on others
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sexually suggestive materials including
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lwd photographs texts about his sex life
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some senior bunge Executives frequently
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showed up for work drunk attending
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several group meetings while clearly
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intoxicated and while intoxicated
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decided iron Banner should be two weeks
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now I shouldn't joke about this uh
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another accusation is that one of
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Bungie's founding members made frequent
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sexist and racist comments in group
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settings another accusation is that
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during an interview a potential hire
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told Bungie they should name a destiny
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faction a a very inappropriate name
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Barrett reported this and apparently
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they hired him anyways and a former
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senior Bungie executive referred to
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Hillary Clinton as that same bad word I
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guess and we have even more accusations
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here with the one that kind of popped
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off on social media uh saying that at
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least one bunge employee frequently
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exposed himself in the office including
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by pulling down his pants in the middle
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of the office and pressing his exposed
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buttcks against the glass overlooking
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the entire studio so I guess this is
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what they're doing at Bungie instead of
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remaking Wrath of the machine again I
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shouldn't joke about this and you can
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see some more of the accusations uh
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within the lawsuit so just basically
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Chris bear comes back with this lawsuit
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and says basically I didn't do it in
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fact here's all the stuff you guys are
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doing interestingly there's a couple of
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weird things going on here first of all
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the fact that he wants $200 million and
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then also to be reinstated as head of
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marathon bankrupting the company or
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nearly bankrupting Bungie and then
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putting yourself back in charge when you
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now have no resources I'm not sure
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that's the best approach there also what
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kind of work environment would that be
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if you actually came back into that
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position like I don't think he's really
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thought this one through interestingly
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again there seems to be a lot of
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mudslinging a lot of well look at how
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much you guys have done and my kind of
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initial impression was this guy is more
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focused on saying well what about this
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and this and this than actually
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necessarily denying what he himself has
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done in fact it's almost not quite an
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admission of guilt but it's like this
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thing is actually so common at the
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studio like I wasn't out of line I was
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right in line with with what is already
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happening you know what I'm saying and
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someone who actually echoed these
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thoughts was the ex Destiny 2 Community
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manager lyanna r ERT she actually quote
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tweeted when this first news story broke
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and said and who stood by and
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participated and let it happen people
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love to tell on themselves anyways
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support Bungie DS because they are
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incredible humans and have done
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tremendous things with very little they
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love this game in the community and
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Bungie belongs to them and the community
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so I very much do agree with the second
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part right like most of these
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allegations are Bungie senior lead
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Bungie founder but it's not like random
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employees the guy programming the new
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you know weapons the guy making new
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exotic perks these are not the guys
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doing the crazy stuff it seems like it's
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just the high up seite Executives at
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always as always causing trouble but
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again they she specifically says stood
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by and participated and let it happen so
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saying that Chris Barrett was not only
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letting all this stuff happened but
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actually participated in some of these
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things as well in fact um clarifying
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this Point even further someone replied
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it seems like this whole lawsuit is one
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giant whataboutism saying like well what
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about this what about this that's kind
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of what I talked about earlier and she
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replies directly and goes yep so that's
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where we're at and remember lyanna rert
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was at Bungie at the same time as Chris
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Barrett so you know she may have seen
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some of these things happen now that is
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one craziness going on there that is
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just one news story the first news story
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that broke and to transition into the
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next story we have the perfect tweet
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from Paul tassi a games journalist at
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Forbes saying something to keep in mind
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Bungie laid off its general counsel Don
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McGaw in the big Purge who had won
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several previous high-profile cases on
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their behalf so Bungie's getting sued
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for $200 million uhoh they just laid off
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the guy who won them a bunch of court
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cases that can't be good and then speak
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of the devil Dawn comes out himself in
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an interview around the same time like
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right after this lawsuit was announced
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and in this interview actually talks
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about the fact that Bungie would
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specifically hire fans because they work
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for Less saying quote we totally took
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advantage of that at Bungie and this
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caused another uproar so you already
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have this lawsuit right after that the
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again exgen counsil comes out and said
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yeah we're actually hiring people for
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much less than we arguably should be
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paying them because they're massive
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Destiny fans and to be realistic here a
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lot of companies do this right and I'm
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not even defending this I'm just saying
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this is a common practice especially
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within the video games industry the
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entertainment industry people will work
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for a lot less because they're fans of a
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franchise an IP a company Etc and you
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know it's just unfortunate because
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you're hiring fans because you're
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getting a big discount by not paying as
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much but then that means that people
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with outside perspectives people who are
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not fans people could that could maybe
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contribute new ideas to the franchise
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they're not even maybe applying for the
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jobs because the pay is so low and so
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again Bungie got massively criticized uh
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for this one here so not going well and
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then after that another report was put
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out uh that Bungie's Workforce has
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reportedly shrunk by over 7 100
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employees in less than a year and again
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this information is coming from that
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former uh Chief legal officer Don Macwan
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revealing this that they had around
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1,600 employees before layoffs started
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and now there's only about
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850 staffers remaining now 850 is still
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a very good number and remember a lot of
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these L not all of them but a lot of the
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Bungie Workforce before these layoffs
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was working on these like undetermined
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new different projects that went nowhere
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there was and we talked about this when
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the layoffs were first reported there
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was not just like one game they were
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working on in the background there was
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multiple different incubation projects
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going on all at the same time and almost
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all of them just spiled into nothing and
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got cancelled so how much did the actual
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Destiny developers lose it's really hard
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to say and they certainly did lose some
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we've had several high-profile Employees
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leaving the studio and that is kind of
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what Paul tassi says right here saying
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one underreported aspect of this is that
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a lot of Bungie people are just leaving
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not necessarily being laid off and that
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is true the game director the previous
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game director before the final shape
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came out Joe Blackburn left the company
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like as final shape was coming out we've
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had a lot of high-profile bunge
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employees specifically working with
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Destiny just leaving so overall not a
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good situation like absolutely not a
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good situation it's almost good however
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that they did get bought out by Sony
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because surely Sony will be providing
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legal counsel and resources to help
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fight back against this lawsuit I would
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imagine right uh in any event yeah
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there's been a lot of memes about Sony
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buying Bungie and then all this stuff
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happens and they're just going oh my
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like what did we get ourselves into what
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did we purchase here and yeah not good
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this is all absolutely all these things
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are not good for Bungie so do they have
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a chance to turn it around maybe right
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maybe I think the thing that I always
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say to people when we talk about Doom
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and Gloom stuff with Bungie and can
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Bungie turn it around is simply that the
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final shape was excellent I really
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enjoyed that expansion it had some
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fantastic content and missions and all
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that stuff and most people out there do
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agree it was highly reviewed so it's not
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like it's been years since a good
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Destiny expansion literally the last
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expansion was excellent now episode
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Echoes and the episodes that followed
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were not quite so good and that's where
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a lot of the negativity comes from
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certainly but in Destiny 2 Frontiers
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they're doing away with these like
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stretched out seasons and rather just
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focusing on what Bungie kind of does do
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best which is these big DLCs we've had a
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lot of great DLCs and another example
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hey lightfall sucked all right it did
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and a lot of negativity was due from
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lightfall but right before then the
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witch Queen was great so we have very
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recent DLC bangers it's not like Bungie
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has completely lost the magic they're
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still pumping out DLCs that hit with the
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community and that people love right so
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again I don't think necessarily all hope
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is lost but certainly this is not good
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and certainly is just another example of
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Bungie just really needing to focus down
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on Destiny they're doing all this crazy
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stuff with these other games how much
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resources has gone into Marathon just to
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hire this if bung's right hire a shady
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game director just because he's been at
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the company a long time and end up
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having to fire him and replace him down
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the line because he's behaving impro
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inappropriately or if Chris Barrett is
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right they you fire the game director in
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the middle of development to avoid
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paying him what he's owed it the whole
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thing is just kind of of a debacle
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anyways guys that's the crazy situations
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that's everything that's going on so far
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hopefully nothing gets added to this
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list guys that's it for the video hope
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you enjoyed and found this informative
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if you did please remember to help me
00:14:22
out by simply rating and especially
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sharing this video if you guys want to
00:14:25
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00:14:37
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00:14:40
and as always have a good day
