Troy Leavitt, the game developer at the centre of a controversy last month afterit was discovered he had run “a reactionary YouTube channel focused on attacking feminism and social justice”, has resigned from his position at Avalanche Software, developers of the upcoming Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy
Leavitt announced his decision to “part ways” with Avalanche in a series of tweets:
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.
— Troy Leavitt (@Troylus_true) March 5, 2021
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. 😄👍
— Troy Leavitt (@Troylus_true) March 5, 2021
As we reported in February:
Among Leavitt’s…videos are lengthy defenses of both John Lasseter, the Pixar co-founder who left his position at Disney in 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct, and Nolan Bushnell, the Atari co-founder who Kotaku’s reporting found to have fostered a toxic work environment for women. In some of his videos, Leavitt expressed support for Gamergate, a movement that fostered harassment against women and other minorities in the gaming industry, and criticized Anita Sarkeesian’s Tropes vs. Women series as an “uninformed fringe position.” Leavitt discussed his opinions on Gamergate in-depth during a 2017 interview, saying, “Gamergate, while painful at times, on the whole proved to be a good thing,”
In the wake of this revelation, and continued opposition to Potter author JK Rowling’s transphobic views, it was reportedlast week that the game will feature some added “customization options related to gender”.
Asked for comment, publisher Warner Bros. tells Kotaku, “Senior Producer Troy Leavitt has made the decision to leave Avalanche Software.”
Update, 3/13/21, 11:26am—In a YouTube video of a Zoom presentation directed at Avalanche colleagues, Leavitt says he left the studio to deal with an ongoing family matter. He says that WB “did not in any way pressure me to retire…In the end, I made the decision to re-retire, just like I had planned to last August, and I’m very pleased with that decision because I think it’s the right thing to do for me at this point in my life.” In the video, he writes that “the articles were a catalyst in this – but not the cause.”
