Robert Bowling's (Midnight Society Studio Head) partner, an EA employee, had to deal with some sick shit; EA did nothing punitive in response

[Terbinator]

*Yeesh*

Also, the naming and receipts should be bang to rights?

Aside from the obvious, completely mad EA can't literally see the wood for the trees optics wise going off those tweets.

 

[Kinthey]

The brazenness of these abusers when they basically send the victims evidence because they know they can get away with it

 

[luminosity]

Time for someone to just tag all the journalists at resetera in this thread.

(not me).

 

[Foolhardy]

Sometimes I wonder if there's a case to be made for bringing back the pillory.

Excise these fucks and burn out the infection that allowed them to stay in place.

 

[Tofd]

Damn, those are hefty accusations. This needs way more attention.

 

[Jamesac68]

Sometimes I wonder if there's a case to be made for bringing back the pillory.

Excise these fucks and burn out the infection that allowed them to stay in place.

Click to shrink...

That would be HR running defense. I'm not saying I disagree at all.

 

[btags]

Yeah, cool of him to just actual name names. I hate when people act all cagey. This is the right approach to just call out the abusers and let everyone know what assholes they are and try to get something to change.

 

[Feenix]

Yeah, cool of him to just actual name names. I hate when people act all cagey. This is the right approach to just call out the abusers and let everyone know what assholes they are and try to get something to change.

Click to shrink...

I mean, if someone did this to MY wife? I'd have posted the videos. These guys deserve to be decimated.

 

[Velox Cor]

My heart goes out to him and his partner.

I went through something similar several years back. Not as an employee, but as a business owner while trying to finalize a long term service contract with two larger entities, one of them being a Crown Corporation here in British Columbia. The two men claimed I had solicited the lewd content they sent to my phone, and the case was quickly dismissed because there was supposedly no way to prove I had not in fact allowed it to happen "behind the scenes" to help secure the business deal.

 

[Neuromancer]

Why do so many of these dudes think people want to see their dicks? Unless asked specifically by someone you are dating just assume the other person doesn't want to see it.

Click to shrink...

I think they know no one wants to see them. They think it's a power move and they get off on thinking about the other persons reaction.

 

[ShinobiOfTheWind]

Staff should have thread stickied in Gaming Forum's 1st page, till major publications pick up reporting it.

 

[niccoolnic]

Absolutely disgusting shit. Fuck these dudes and fuck the people keeping them in their positions.

 

[Storm]

There's no room in this industry for predators. Drag them and anyone who protected them through hell.

 

[Minamu]

Burn EA to the ground, jfc!

 

[KaCo]

Really vile shit. Show the names, don't let EA try and hide them.

 

[Micael]

That line about behaviour occurring outside of work so therefore nothing can be done is flatly wrong. By the same logic if they killed someone outside of work hours nothing could be done.

Your conduct outside of work, particularly towards co-workers, absolutely can be counted as misconduct and result in dismissal. It's insane to suggest otherwise. Companies wouldn't be able to do *anything* if that wasn't the case.

Click to shrink...

Seen here nothing they can do:

EA to Lay Off More Than 600 Employees, or 5% of Workforce; Scraps ‘Star Wars’ First-Person Shooter Game

Electronic Arts (EA) is laying off 5% of its workforce, roughly 670 employees, making it the latest video game company to enact staffing reductions.

variety.com

How possibly could they fire employees:

Electronic Arts gross profit for the quarter ending December 31, 2023 was $1.416B, a 7.84% increase year-over-year. Electronic Arts gross profit for the twelve months ending December 31, 2023 was $5.856B, a 4.31% increase year-over-year.

Click to shrink...

It's just not feasible.

It is always impossible when it doesn't benefit them, but when it does, there seems to always be ways.

Staff should have thread stickied in Gaming Forum's 1st page, till major publications pick up reporting it.

Click to shrink...

Extremely pro this, frankly.

 

[MissingString]

This is par for the course when it comes to EA. I know of at least two other situations like this - one of which is infamous in my dev circle.

I'd give details but it's not my story to tell. Nothing about this surprises me.

 

[Zem]

When I googled it there was still only one site that had picked this up. Games journalists should be embarrassed.

 

[Light Valyis]

Vile behaviour, adding EA to the list of publishers/devs that I'm no longer purchasing from

 

[NaikoGames]

EA is rotten from the inside

 

[klauskpm]

Did we have any new developments or coverages on the subject yet? I couldn't find anything...

 

[LongDongJunon]

Surprise, surprise EA still fuckin sucks

 

[MayorReynoldsTV]

Did we have any new developments or coverages on the subject yet? I couldn't find anything...

Click to shrink...

Just from Rob himself.

 

[Kenai]

This is the only place I have seen this story and that is quite depressing, if unsurprising

 

[Phantom_Snake]

Obviously fuck the little shrimp showing sweaty sacks of shits. But also what the fuck is EA doing here. Fire the abusers and fire the HR person.

What the hell is there to gain by keeping all these creeps, rather than trying to protect your brand? Sure, there'll be short term negative press. But firing sacks of shit like this goes a long way in having a workplace where employees know this kind of sick behavior won't be tolerated.

 

[.exe]

What the hell is there to gain by keeping all these creeps, rather than trying to protect your brand? Sure, there'll be short term negative press. But firing sacks of shit like this goes a long way in having a workplace where employees know this kind of sick behavior won't be tolerated.

Click to shrink...

Perhaps they know where the proverbial bodies are buried.

 

[Manggei]

How can those assholes get through with this... happens all the time, will happen again and again. So sick of it.

 

[Rahfiki]

This is the only place I have seen this story and that is quite depressing, if unsurprising

Click to shrink...

I'm honestly a bit surprised.

I've only seen two articles from outlets I've never heard of before (not a dig I get my news from era so I could be out of the loop). I really expected some coverage from more mainstream outlets even if it was super PR friendly and went out of the way not to directly hurl accusations but this silence is deafening.

 

[KeRaSh]

Disgusting pieces of shit and EA can fuck off into the void for not doing anything about it.

 

[Temperance]

Guess this is being swept and will be old new in a few more days, pretty sad.

+ Might try shooting the twitter thread to some big YT channels that cover news. Might not do anything but better to see if even 1 covers it.

 

[JB2448]

Guess this is being swept and will be old new in a few more days, pretty sad.

Click to shrink...

What can we even do about it? We can raise awareness here and on other forums and social media outlets, but that won't make journalists pick it up.

 

[Pyro]

I'm just convinced every company of this size has multiple pieces of shit.

 

[poklane]

I'm just convinced every company of this size has multiple pieces of shit.

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Yeah, when you employ thousands of people there's bound to be some weirdos, pieces of shit and so on among them. The important thing here is that EA refuses to do anything about it when these 2 pieces of shit got caught.

 

[Zalapski]

What can we even do about it? We can raise awareness here and on other forums and social media outlets, but that won't make journalists pick it up.

Click to shrink...

I wouldn't lose hope and I wouldn't assume that journalists are not working on this right now. With something like this, lawyers have to get involved. Just publishing Bowling's account with no other reporting is a huge libel risk, especially considering the two EA scumbags would not be considered public figures.

Fortunately, the best defense against all of that is the truth, which should lead to some bigger stories about this being written down the road. It will take some time because of the thoroughness required to report something like this, but I'm optimistic there will be an outlet that gets there.

 

[monketron]

The fact that EA refused to put anything in writing says all that needs to be said.

 

[Seyavesh]

that this is gettin' so little traction is sure somethin' a 'lil depressing given how fucked it is. it sure speaks to how commonplace and expected this kinda horseshit is in the space.

like, at the very, absolute most cynical clickbait minimum there's so much ammo around it being a guy who has "director" in his title that's part of a super popular franchise sendin his employees that shit

 

[D O T]

Disgusting stuff

 

[Applebite]

I hope journalists are looking into this and that the silence is simply due diligence being done.

 

[MissingString]

The silence here is sure to be discouraging to so many people in the industry.

 

[klauskpm]

I hope journalists are looking into this and that the silence is simply due diligence being done.

Click to shrink...

I hope this is the case as well, but at the same time it is horrible to not have any outlets just mentioning it in any possible way.

I did ping Kotaku, Polygon, and Easy Allies, not asking for a full coverage, but at least to help bring reach to it. I know several already did ping Jason Schreier, but it will probably take a long time (for a good reason) for us to see something, if something comes out (as he is more focused on financial/business side now).