Former Quantic Dream employee wins court case against developer

The courts have dealt a blow to developer Quantic Dream, ruling in favour of a former employee who left the company due to a toxic workplace culture.

Earlier this year, damning articles exposing alleged homophobia, racism and sexism at Quantic Dream appeared in three different French publications.

Included in the Canard PC, Mediapart and Le Monde articles were copies of photoshopped images (NSFW) which circulated around the studio of different staff members superimposed into sexual scenes or dressed as Nazis. It was these images which prompted the employee to leave the company.

Studio head David Cage fervently denied the allegations, decrying the reports as a "smear campaign" and even filing a lawsuit against two of the three publications.

As reported by Eurogamer, the case revolves around a piece of French employment law prise d'acte which allows an employee who terminates their own contract to petition for unfair dismissal; the caveat, however, is that until the case is tried and a ruling is made, the employee receives none of their employment rights or salary.

Essentially the employee's decision to leave has now been ruled as unfair dismissal, complete with the afforded rights.

Gamekult journalist Nicolas Turcev said on Twitter: "@Quantic_Dream has just lost an industrial court case against one of the employees at the heart of the case of the photomontages of the beginning of the year.

"The act of breaking a contract of employment has been reclassified as dismissal without real and serious cause. The studio can appeal."

Turvec also notes that two other former employees had their cases for wrongful dismissal denied by the courts; one of them is appealing.