MidBoss names Cade Peterson interim CEO
Veteran of Jump, Sony takes over 2064: Read Only Memories studio as founder Matt Conn leaves amid controversy
Update: Peterson has issued an additional statement clarifying that he is retaining his full-time position at Jump and taking over at MidBoss in an interim CEO capacity only.
"I've always been a champion of GaymerX and MidBoss, so when they asked if I could step in to help during this critical period of transition for them, I definitely wanted to assist. I will be working with them in this interim capacity until a suitable full-time replacement for MidBoss is found."
The original story follows below.
MidBoss has a new boss. The studio today announced Cade Peterson as its new CEO, taking over from Matt Conn after the studio founder was accused of sexual harassment and a variety of exploitive employment practices.
Peterson joins the company from streaming service Jump, where he was VP of content and community. Prior to that, Peterson held a variety of roles in the games industry, including developer relations at Leap Motion and community management at Sony Computer Entertainment America.
MidBoss released a statement from Peterson addressing the allegations and outlining next steps for the studio.
"As is now public knowledge, various allegations have been made against MidBoss over the past few weeks including sexual harassment, underpaying staff, undervaluing women and people of color, threats of legal action against workers and not providing access to a human resources department," Peterson said. "We have been listening to everything with an open mind, recognize we let our team down, and have apologized to them in private and now do so in public. Our workers are our most valuable asset and management must do better moving forward.
"As such we are making changes to company policies and personnel. Effective immediately I will be assuming the role of CEO. Matt Conn, our former CEO, is being fully offboarded. Toni Rocca, who was briefly interim CEO, will be assisting me in the transition period and will no longer be part of the company within the next 30 days."
Peterson said he will be conducting an audit of what MidBoss pays people, bringing in an external human resources company, and instituting mandatory sexual harassment training for all employees.
"It would be easy to see all the negative press and problems at MidBoss then walk away, but our amazing employees are staying and I am joining the company now, because we all recognize how important a role we play in the industry," Peterson said. "We all believe in creating beautiful experiences that bring forth characters and storylines not common in AAA games and increasing visibility to marginalized people in a positive way."