The developers behind Hogwarts Legacy saw an exit this week. Troy Leavitt made headlines with his right-wing nationalist YouTube channel.
Avalanche Software, the studio behind the development of Hogwarts Legacy, had an exit this week. The developer Troy Leavitt resigned from his duties with immediate effect and gave up his post. Previously, there had been some quarrels over the developer’s polarizing YouTube channel.
Leavitt, who has been a developer in the video direction finding industry since 1995, gave up today Twitter announced his termination. He wants to publish more details soon in a YouTube video. But he found a few words in advance: “I have only good things to say about the game, the dev team and Warner Bros. Games. To be clear: I felt absolutely secure in my position. Nevertheless, I wanted to resign for reasons which I will explain in a later video. I am doing very well and I am very grateful for the partnership with WB and Avalanche “.
Leavitts YouTube-Kanal, which currently has almost 27,000 subscribers, mainly contains videos in which he appears as a member of the right-wing conservative wing. Criticisms of Anita Sarkeesian’s feminist arguments are paired with trivializing comments about the dismissal of Pixar boss John Lasseter on charges of sexual harassment. His words about Pro-GamerGate and internal reports about the corporate culture at Atari also met with strong headwinds from the industry. It went so far that Liam Robertson of Did You Know Gaming
Leavitt himself said he had informed Warner Bros. through his channel before the project started and that he did not see any problems with it. However, especially since the allegations against Harry Potter inventor JK Rowling of having expressed herself transphobically, some online media take a more critical view. So called for example the game forum ResetEra to a media boycott of Hogwarts Legacy until the 2022 release.
At the beginning of this week, colleagues reported on Bloombergthat it is intended for the character editor of the game to also enable trans-inclusive characters. With this, the developers want to show themselves to be much more progressive internally than figures like Leavitt are currently making public. Warner Bros has since confirmed Leavitt’s decision to leave Avalanche Software. We have been waiting eagerly for a video from him ever since.