Season Developer Scavengers Studio Responds to Toxic Workplace Allegations

Scavengers Studio, the developer of Darwin Project and the upcoming Seasons, has issued an official statement regarding the toxic workplace allegations levied against the studio's co-founders Simon Darveau and Amélie Lamarche. Lamarche, who is Scavengers Studio's CEO, said in the statement that the company "wishes to apologize for the harm caused" and that it is taking these allegations seriously. Additionally, it is "committed to doing better for our employees, our fans and our partners." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/season-announcement-trailer"] The studio held an emergency Board of Directors meeting to decide on the best course of action moving forward, and is enacting the following changes immediately;

• Simon Darveau is indefinitely suspended from all responsibilities within the company and from the Board of Directors.
• An external auditing firm will conduct an independent workplace assessment and audit of our culture and practices.
• Daisy Lilly Best, currently Director of Operations, is appointed as Chief Operating Officer and will be reporting directly to the board of directors for the duration of the audit to ensure complete transparency and accountability.
• The audit report will be shared in its entirety with the team and presented by Daisy to the board for further actions to be taken.

Furthermore, to "ensure a transparent, fair and unbiased process" Lamrache will be stepping down as from her role as CEO for the duration of the audit. She will, however, remain available to "support the studio's normal course of business." Lamarche ends by asking for the patience of the community as it goes through this process, and that the team has full confidence in the creative direction of Season and will "continue to support the amazing work of our talented team." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=season-9-screenshots&captions=true"] The allegations against Darveau came from nine current and former employees of Scavengers Studio and range from creating a hostile workplace to creating a "boys' club" atmosphere to sexual harassment. It was also said that this behavior was enabled by Lamarche, who had served in an HR role to other employees despite having previously been in a romantic relationship with Davreau. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.