Hogwarts Legacy lead developer Troy Leavitt has announced he has quit working at developer Avalanche Software.
[Developing]
Speaking on Twitter [1, 2] Leavitt explained that he had high praise for the game, developer, and publisher WB Games. He will be explaining why he quit in an upcoming video.
“1. I have made the decision to part ways with Avalanche Software. I have nothing but good things to say about the game, the dev team, and WB Games.
2. I will be releasing a YouTube Video about this soon on my channel.
To clarify: I felt absolutely secure in my position. However, I still wanted to resign for reasons that I will explain in that forthcoming video . I’m in excellent spirits and very pleased with my relationship with WB and Avalanche.”
We shall keep you informed, and update this article once the video has been published to Leavitt’s YouTube channel.
As previously reported, the game had some controversy surrounding it. Both Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and Leavitt had been branded as bigots by some.
For Rowling, this was due to her comments on taking issue with an article that used the term “people who menstruate“ to differentiate between women and male to female transgender women.
“The ‘inclusive’ language that calls female people ‘menstruators’ and ‘people with vulvas’ strikes many women as dehumanising and demeaning,” Rowling stated in a post on her website. “I understand why trans activists consider this language to be appropriate and kind, but for those of us who’ve had degrading slurs spat at us by violent men, it’s not neutral, it’s hostile and alienating.”
When Bloomberg reported Avalanche Software was working on the game before it was announced (then only known as a “big budget” open world Harry Potter game); their sources claimed developers felt “uncomfortable and sparked private discussions” when studio management did not address the controversy.
Meanwhile, Leavitt had previously run a YouTube channel that discussed politics and gaming. He had been branded as politically “far right” and a bigot by some journalists and news outlets due to the opinions expressed in these videos.
This included being critical of the mainstream media coverage of GamerGate, “social justice” political beliefs, feminism, the generalization of gamers as toxic, Anita Sarkeesian, the Me Too movements (believing some cases’ validity to be dubious, and calling it a “moral panic”), and left wing political beliefs.
In one video from 2018, Leavitt claimed that his employers WB Games were aware of his channel, and did not object to its content. “Not that they endorse anything that I’ve said of course,” Leavitt explains, “but at least they seem more concerned with making good games than with pushing some kind of a social justice agenda, so there is hope.”
Recently anonymous employees speaking to Bloomberg claimed that players would be allowed to create transgender characters.
Hogwarts Legacy launches 2022 for Windows PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Image: Twitter