Rocksteady were the subject of a report in The Guardian on Monday which accused them of ignoring sexual harassment claims, followed by a emotional video from Kim MacAskil, Senior Writer at the studio until 2019.
Rocksteady have now posted an “unsolicited letter” from seven out of the ten women who signed the original letter which complained about sexual harassment.
While working on our response to the recent news, we received the following unsolicited letter. pic.twitter.com/sozmsp6u3C
— Rocksteady Studios (@RocksteadyGames) August 19, 2020
Rocksteady have used Twitter’s new feature that stops anyone from replying to their tweets, but here are some of the comments from across Twitter.
When we faced our diversity problems at Riot, some women shared their positive experiences too. Stories of happiness and stories of pain are equally valid. What we didn’t do is pit those groups against each other or publicly divide them.
?? this is completely irresponsible. https://t.co/z9Z2z6U7O2
— soha (@sokareemie) August 19, 2020
Hey guys I know I've been accused of stealing cookies from the cookie jar, but I want you to know that I've just received an anonymous letter. The letter reads: 'Joseph is innocent. He is also very cool' So there you go, case closed!
— Joseph Gribbin (@JoGribbin) August 19, 2020
(Baby break.)
So while it is almost certainly true that the women who penned this letter genuinely think things have improved enough and are continuing to improve, it doesn't really tell us much. And frankly, it's shameful for Rocksteady to trot this out like it exonerates them.
— Robotica Hermit (@androidqueen) August 20, 2020
Dear Rocksteady: How Well You Handle Sexual Harassment
Complaints Isn’t Up For Vote : #analytics #googleads #facebookads https://t.co/ZxzWx10na6— ? Datos Digital (@datos_digital) August 20, 2020
Listen, I'm not saying this is a lie. I don't know those details. All I'm saying is that:
Rocksteady: "Oh hey, look, we found another letter that says women actually love working here, and everything is fine, and you should totally buy our new game!"
… looks suss as hell. https://t.co/A92Aq59zrV
— Justin McDaniel ?️? (@JUSTINtime4aLAF) August 20, 2020
Regardless of the authenticity of that Rocksteady letter, posting it to Twitter is really fucking crazy and any PR manager worth their salt should have prevented them from doing that.
— Imran Khan (@imranzomg) August 20, 2020
MrYd
Are you suggesting it’s somehow bad that they’re using that new Twitter feature to prevent replies? Maybe because they don’t want anyone to say anything that might contradict what they were saying?
Because that YouTube video yesterday also has comments turned off. Presumably because someone might say something she doesn’t like.
And I could name a certain other popular gaming website which has been endlessly reporting on every single allegation over the past few weeks and closing their comments before anyone could say anything.
three_leg_jake
I didn’t read that as criticism of them using the no reply feature of Twitter, it appeared to be a statement of fact.
Whether the comments taken from other Twitter posts is representative of all replies is open to debate as we don’t know how they were selected. If I was concerned I would do my own trawl to find out but I’m not so I won’t ;)
Lieutenant Fatman
Bizzare behaviour. So they’ve been accused of ignoring sexual harassment claims, and have still made no suggestion (that I can see) that they’re making any effort to investigate. Desperately trying to save face and achieving the complete opposite.
MrYd
If you read this latest letter, they’ve been doing “something” about it for the past 2 years, but it was being treated as a “private matter”.
Which, assuming they weren’t forced to write it, should be the end of it.
Lieutenant Fatman
Considering the circumstances, I’m not making that assumption.
MrYd
If they were “forced” to write it, or the company just wrote it and said “the women signed it”, they’d be found out fairly quickly. They wouldn’t be so stupid as to risk that, would they?
It looks like they had a problem, did something about it privately, and that should have been the end of it. But 1 woman, for some reason, wanted something different to happen.
Lieutenant Fatman
There are various ways of pressuring people into signing something that they’re not comfortable with, and people in a position of power often do think they’re untouchable. Are we sure they wouldn’t be so stupid? There are plenty who would.
colmshan1990
“We received the following unsolicited letter, whose senders will remain anonymous. Not to us though – we know all their names, and we’d know if any of them refused to sign it, and they all depend on us for their jobs. But there was no pressure at all on them to sign, despite all of that. Take our word for it.”