PUBG writer Krafton Inc. has been named in a wrongful termination and sexual assault lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles on December 7, 2023 by a 31-year-old unnamed former worker who alleges she was fired shortly after reporting the incident to higher administration on the firm.
CW: This story accommodates allegations of harassment and assault.
The worker says that Kevin Kimball, Krafton’s then-head of technique and enterprise improvement, “compelled himself” on her at a celebration hosted by Callisto Protocol developer Placing Distance following The Recreation Awards in December 2022. Regardless of working at Krafton for 2 years, the place the lawsuit states she was “at all times an excellent worker [who] acquired glorious evaluations,” the lady says she was fired on February 15, 2023, two months after reporting the alleged incident on December 8, 2022. The case claims Krafton ignored her complaints and didn’t examine the claims towards Kimball.
“These Defendants had the fitting, responsibility, capacity and energy to guard Plaintiff (and all females) from intercourse harassment, sexual assault and alcohol fueled debauchery but nothing was performed to handle Kimball’s intercourse assault of the Plaintiff,” the lawsuit states. “Not solely has the lady claimed to face monetary misery from ‘leaving her with out revenue and unemployed from full time work since [she was] all of the sudden fired,’ she says she has skilled ‘extreme emotional misery,’ together with ‘nice worry, shame, fixed concern, [and] embarrassment.’”
A Krafton Inc. consultant supplied the next assertion to Kotaku:
We deal with all allegations of improper office conduct with the utmost seriousness. As that is an ongoing authorized matter, we’re unable to touch upon the specifics of the case.
Sexual assault and harassment have been main points within the video games business for years, significantly at company-sponsored occasions. Not less than 12 months’s Recreation Builders Convention, for instance, a number of girls reported undesirable advances, drink spiking, and sexual assault. Organizers of the occasion mentioned they “severely condemn” such conduct, promising to work with native authorities to supply security and safety. Nevertheless, conventions proceed to be hotbeds for sexualized abuse.
Replace, 01/26/23 5:15 p.m. ET: Added a press release from a Krafton Inc. consultant.