Other Rocksteady Employees Come Forward to Defend Their Studio

Yesterday, we reported that Rocksteady, the folks behind the Arkham games and the upcoming Suicide Squad game, was accused by one of its female employees of failing to address systemic sexism and abuse that was apparently prevalent throughout the company. Only one person had come forward, but we expected that in the days to follow, more people would come forward to collaborate the claims and put the company on blast.

However, things have taken an unexpected turn. Over on Twitter, Rocksteady Studios shared a letter that was reportedly written and submitted to them by other female employees in the company, which paint a very different picture of the UK-based game studio.

“Recently, an article was posted in the Guardian regarding this letter which was sent to the studio heads in HR in 2018, in addition to multiple other accusations. In this article, we feel that the anonymous source or sources attempted to speak on behalf of all women at Rocksteady, and we do not feel that the article is a fair representation of us, the events at the time or since the letter was received.

When the letter was received by the studio, immediate action was taken which resulted in a series of meetings with the women of the studio to allow us a safe space to talk about any issues we were facing, figure out strategies to resolve these issues and what the studio could do going forward. Continued efforts have been made to ensure that we have a voice within our work and within the studio, raging from involvement specifically with how our characters are represented to workshops to build our self-confidence within male-dominated industries. Thought all of this, a firm promise has been made that there is always an open forum for us to speak out and that the issues would be addressed with seriousness.”

It went on to say that none of the other signers were contacted before the letter was shared with the Guardian, and they felt like their privacy was violated by this anonymous sharer. And while they did say they should take any accusations of abuse seriously, they also reiterated that they felt safe in Rocksteady and that the action taken in the past was more than sufficient to deal with the issues of two years prior.

Assuming this letter is authentic – and let’s face it, it would take some serious gall to forge a statement like this on behalf of your own employees – I can see one of two narratives being true. Either the anonymous sharer of the letter knows something that the other signers don’t, and decided to take action without consulting their co-writers first… or the unpleasant reality that it’s always possible that the anonymous sharer was simply lying about abuse in an effort to deface Rocksteady.

While we as a culture should make a habit of believing victims, we can’t ignore the small percentage of cases where people genuinely do lie about abuse or harassment.

We may never find out which of those narratives are true, but if this letter is fake, other employees will no doubt speak up. I guess things are still up in the air until that’s sorted.