Scavengers Studio Creative Director Simon Darveau has been accused by current and former employees of multiple abuse claims. According to insiders that spoke with gamesindustry.biz staff writer Rebekah Valentine, Darveau not only screamed and belittled women in the office, but inappropriately touched several of them after getting intoxicated at a company party in early 2019, which resulted in two employees quitting.
The report claims that Darveau belittled women, harassed many employees unchecked, and portrayed an attitude that almost everyone was ‘disposable’. The lengthy report details many claims about Darveau, who still works at Scavengers Studio, one of which includes angrily yelling at an Xbox representative over the phone about the lack of event-space at a convention.
A spokesperson for Scavengers Studio did respond to Rebekah’s article, though allegations weren’t specifically addressed, they had this to say about the ‘positive changes’ they were able to make:
"You should note that Scavengers Studio has taken positive steps to look into its culture to see what aspects need to be adjusted. In early 2019, Simon Darveau was replaced as CEO by Lamarche who took full control of the company. As a new female CEO, Lamarche started to build a mid-management team composed of competent team members to continue to lead the company in its mission of creating new gaming experiences with very strong and innovative empathetic twists. The new management team has since then recreated a sense of calm and happiness in the workplace where talents are gathered around interesting and dynamic projects and where differences are embraced."
-Scavengers Studio
The Darwin Project is no longer in production, and failed after only four months, though servers are currently still running in some capacity, the game itself has been completely abandoned.
Commenting on this post has been disabled