Postby Robobvious » Thu Mar 30, 2017 8:20 am
So I know I'm late to the party on this but I only recently heard about it and decided I wanted to get my two cents in before the game comes out. While I don't agree with Jon's views at all, I do think it was pretty screwed up that they fired him over it. If Playtonic was based in America I actually think they would be legally culpable for infringing on his freedom of speech (unless they explicitly made him agree not to do as he did in a formal contract), but since they're not they're off the hook in that department.
I don't know, just seems like an overreaction on their part in that nobody is gonna go "Omg! Yooka-Laylee is rascist you guys!" because one guy who's tangentially related to its development kind of is. The truth is all big games are made by teams, teams with vastly different cultural, religious, and political beliefs. And just because one of the voice actors turned out to be bigoted doesn't mean the game is going to reflect that in any way. We know that.
Ultimately I feel it was a move motivated by political correctness and being "safe", and while it's sad that those are the views he keeps, he absolutely has a right to them. Thinking that we as the consumers can't tell the difference between the personal views of one employee and the official position of a multi-million dollar company is fairly insulting to our intelligence in my opinion.
Regardless, I look forward to the game. I don't want a refund and I'm not gonna start shouting boycott like the fanboys who stormed the steam discussion boards, truth is I think it will be a lot of fun. I just wish Playtonic had handled what happened a little bit differently, that's all.