Hogwart’s Legacy developer quits amidst backlash over supporting GamerGate
Troy Leavitt, lead designer in charge of the upcoming Harry Potter game Hogwart’s Legacy, has stepped down from his position amidst backlash from fans over videos supporting GamerGate. The videos were located on Leavitt’s personal YouTube account, where the designer expressed that despite the controversy being ‘painful at times’ it was ultimately proved ‘to be a good thing.’
GamerGate, a movement that argues its sole function is to only uphold a standard for ‘ethics in games journalism’ led to mass harassment campaigns directed at journalists and developers – who yes, were mostly women – due to the belief that relationships between journalists and developers were leading reviews to focus on more progressive social issues.
It was with Leavitt’s sympathy of such a movement that added fuel to the fire, as fans were already not amused with Warner Brothers lack of condemnation about JK Rowling’s open transphobia.
The development studio still has nothing to say, as according to Leavitt’s personal Twitter, it was he who made the decision to part ways with Avalanche Software and Warner Brother Games.
As of now, we don’t know what Leavitt’s reason is for quitting Hogwart’s Legacy, but a video is expected to be coming on his YouTube account. His last video was 2 years ago, so this will be the first time in a while that he has used his account. Outside of supporting GamerGate, Leavitt has also created videos in defense of Pixar’s co-founder John Lasseter – who left Disney after accusations of sexual misconduct, as well as videos about SJWs ruining video games.
It’s difficult to say if Leavitt’s video will even touch on his past sympathies with GamerGate, or if he’ll mention the reason for quitting Hogwart’s Legacy at all. All we know for certain is that his exit adds just another notch to the controversies following Warner Brothers and Avalanche Studios.
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