Steve Gaynor

Contents:

• STEVE GAYNOR APOLOGIS FOR "HURTFUL LEARSHIP STYLE" HAVG STEPPED BACK AS OPEN ROADS LEAD
• TWO YEARS AFTER 'TOXIC' STUD MANAGEMENT SNDAL, STEVE GAYNOR IS WORKG AS A SOLO VELOPER UNR THE FULLBRIGHT NAME
• STEVE GAYNOR
• STEVE GAYNOR RELNCH FULLBRIGHT NEWSLETTER, ANNOUNC NEW GAME; OPEN ROADS TO BE CREDED TO "THE OPEN ROADS TEAM"
• FULLBRIGHT'S STEVE GAYNOR ON TAA AND THE CHANGG STATE OF DIE

STEVE GAYNOR APOLOGIS FOR "HURTFUL LEARSHIP STYLE" HAVG STEPPED BACK AS OPEN ROADS LEAD

Fullbright -founr Steve Gaynor, known for his work on Gone Home and Taa, has stepped down om his role as creative lead on Open Roads followg multiple allegatns of mistreatg Fullbright employe, particularly women. Speakg wh Polygon, 12 former employe said their parture was at least part due to Gaynor’s behavr toward workers, specifilly women on the team. Multiple former employe, who spoke wh Polygon anonymoly out of fear of retaliatn, scribed the Fullbright work environment as “ntrollg,” a place which staffers felt unrmed and meaned by Gaynor.

Bee of Gaynor’s stat as the -founr of a beloved die darlg, some former employe said they were worried about beg blacklisted om the dtry — though some end up leavg the dtry entirely, anyway. A Fullbright reprentative nfirmed to Polygon that Gaynor stepped down March due to the “pattern of women leavg” the pany.

TWO YEARS AFTER 'TOXIC' STUD MANAGEMENT SNDAL, STEVE GAYNOR IS WORKG AS A SOLO VELOPER UNR THE FULLBRIGHT NAME

Followg the publitn of this story, Gaynor issued a statement to Polygon:. But at the same time, former employe said they also felt stifled by Gaynor’s “ntrollg” and “meang prence” — someone who allegedly saw Open Roads not as the team’s game, but as his game.

STEVE GAYNOR

That Gaynor, himself, was Fullbright. On Twter, at least, Gaynor “was” Fullbright for que some time: He held the @Fullbright Twter acunt as his personal handle for more than a . When he stepped down om his posn as creative lead, sourc said he was required to change his Twter acunt to @SteveGaynorPDX.

Women learship posns at Fullbright told Polygon that they experienced nstant micromanagement that ma difficult for them to do their jobs, havg to get even the smallt tails approved by Gaynor.

This was pound, they said, by Gaynor’s tenncy to disparage and discred the ntributns of female staffers particular, often directly to learship. Some of the former female staffers said they often worried about how Gaynor characterized them to other employe. Employe told Polygon that they had wanted to report Gaynor’s behavr but had no actual procs to do so.

STEVE GAYNOR RELNCH FULLBRIGHT NEWSLETTER, ANNOUNC NEW GAME; OPEN ROADS TO BE CREDED TO "THE OPEN ROADS TEAM"

Several former employe said they nonted Gaynor directly while they were still employed at Fullbright, tellg him their ncerns about how they believed his behavr negatively impacted the staff. One former employee said she approached Gaynor after readg a GamIndtry.biz report regardg Season veloper Svengers Stud.

She told Polygon she saw siari between Svengers Stud creative director Simon Darve and Gaynor. (While the allegatns regardg Darve clu sexual harassment and gropg, no claims of physil misnduct have been ma agast Gaynor.) The former employee said she warned Gaynor that a siar report uld eventually surface about him. She said she told Gaynor that she was stgglg to m to Open Roads bee she was worried the game would be nceled if an article me out about him.

Gaynor told her that publisher Annapurna had e to him to ask about Fullbright’s attrn problem — particularly, that women were leavg the pany on what seemed like a monthly basis. The next day, the employee who had approached Gaynor said he sent her a lk to a Wikipedia article on “availabily hristics.” On Wikipedia, availabily hristics is scribed as “a mental shortcut that reli on immediate exampl that e to md when evaluatg a specific topic, ncept, method or cisn.”. Other employe ed ex terviews to report the stud culture that they said Gaynor perpetuated.

FULLBRIGHT'S STEVE GAYNOR ON TAA AND THE CHANGG STATE OF DIE

Steve Gaynor, -founr of Fullbright. Two sourc told Polygon that they were hant to hire the qualified, talented women who applied for the rol out of fear of how they’d be treated by Gaynor. Former employe had seen what they perceived as a pattern of young women, early their reers, beg broken down by their time unr Gaynor at Fullbright.

Many have qutned their abili, scribg their experience wh Gaynor as havg been “gasl,” and have sought out therapy to al wh the trma associated wh Fullbright’s pany culture and velopment on Open Roads. In January, Gaynor told Polygon that Open Roads was expected to lnch 2021.

Although Gaynor is no longer a creative lead on Open Roads, he is still workg on the game as a wrer. Instead, Annapurna Interactive is operatg as a mediator between the stud velopers and Gaynor, as velopment ntu wh a actn of the pany. Multiple former employe exprsed ncern that Gaynor was even operatg this pacy — that was weird for a man to be wrg a story about a mother and dghter, particularly a man that has allegedly meaned several female employe.