A former employee is suing Justin Roilands Squanch Games, creators of the recent Xbox Game Pass hit high in life, in 2018 for alleged sexual harassment, discrimination and wrongful termination. According to court documents, the studio denied the claims but was later settled, and while the lawsuit is old, it raises questions about the work culture at Squanch Games, especially after it was recently revealed that co-founder Roiland is faced domestic violence charges from 2020.
The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in August 2018 on behalf of former Squanch Games designer Sarah Doukakos, alleging that she was sexually harassed and disparaged by then-Technical Director Jeff Dixon. She further claims that despite numerous complaints to her managers, including co-founders and then CEOs Officer, Tanya Watson, the behavior was never addressed. Instead, the lawsuit alleges Doukakos was fired for poor performance and then pressured by Watson to sign a liability release as part of her severance package.
Dukakos and Watson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Dixon referred my city to Squanch Games for comment.
“Squanch Games is committed to creating an inclusive and supportive work environment for our team,” said a spokesperson for Squanch Games my city in an email statement. “We do not publicly disclose personnel matters and stand by our decision made in 2017 not to disclose the confidential information related to this case.”
If you are a current or former employee of Squanch Games and would like to chat officially or confidentially, my inbox is always available at [email protected] (Signal and proton on request).
According to the lawsuit, Dixon would force Doukako’s unwanted hugs, question her intelligence and competence, and once tell her that a t-shirt she was wearing that read “The Future is Female” made him sad. The lawsuit also states that Doukakos told their managers about the problems, even going so far as to request one of them, Erich Meyr, currently design director of Squanch Gamesinstead, Dixon pitched their game development ideas so they would be taken seriously.
The lawsuit also alleges that another manager, Anthony Bosco, told Watson about the problems but she only “sighed” in response. Allegedly, things didn’t go any better when Doukakos approached Watson directly. The lawsuit reads:
On August 11, 2017, the plaintiff spoke to Watson and expressed her issues with Mr. Dixon, including the unwanted touching and how Dixon would treat the plaintiff differently because she was female. In response, Watson told the plaintiff, “That’s the way this generation of men is,” and instructed the plaintiff to sit still, take notes, and smile when the men, including Dixon, spoke. The plaintiff specifically informed Watson that, as a woman, the plaintiff did not have to behave differently in order to be heard.
Meyr and Bosco did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit further alleges that despite positive performance feedback from her managers (including Watson) in August, she was placed on a performance improvement plan the following month. During a subsequent “crunch” period, the lawsuit alleges, she worked 12-hour days while pushing back certain content being developed for the game, which allegedly contained rape-related scenes and remarks who denigrate women. While the lawsuit doesn’t specify what the project was, a former employee said my city that the project in question was Squanch Games’ 2019 action-platformer, Trover saves the universe.
Doukakos was eventually fired on November 1 over performance issues, but the lawsuit claims it was actually in retaliation for their grievances. It is even alleged that Watson pressured Doukakos into signing a waiver of all claims against the studio in order to receive her final paycheck and severance pay. While Squanch Games’ court filings in the case refute all allegations, the two sides finally settled in September 2019. It is unclear what the terms of this agreement were. Dixon left the studio shortly after Doukakos and Watson were fired in February 2021.
While Roiland is not mentioned at all in the lawsuit, he has been CEO of Squanch Games since the studio’s founding with Watson in 2016. Yesterday, as first reported by NBC News, it was revealed that as of January 2020, Roiland was facing two domestic violence charges, one of domestic violence and one of false imprisonment. He pleaded not guilty to both, but there is no trial date set at this time.
In the meantime, high in lifethe latest release from Squanch Games was rumored to be Xbox’s biggest Game Pass launch of 2022. Like the hit animated show Roiland helped create, Rick and Mortythe game was divisive for its crude humor and drawn-out antics that some love but others have found incredibly corrosive.
