Christopher Barrett (Barry)

This person is a former Bungie Employee

Christopher Barrett was a long-time Bungie employee who worked on the Myth series, the Halo series, the Destiny series, and helped in the pre-production of the new Marathon. He is a former creative director, game director, art director, and was on Bungie's board of directors before the company was acquired by Sony.

In April 2024, he was fired by Bungie for behaving inappropriately with at least eight female employees.

Bungie Biography

Barrett joined Bungie in late 1999, working on Myth II: Soulblighter and its expansion, Chimera. Shortly after Chimera launched, Barrett moved to the Halo team as an artist, helping to launch Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001. Throughout the mid-2000s, he became the environment art lead for Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo: Reach.

In 2013, he became art director for Destiny, and its three expansion (The Dark Below, House of Wolves, The Taken King). In 2016, he became game director for the series, with his first expansion under that role being Destiny: Rise of Iron. He joined Luke Smith as game director for Destiny 2 in 2017, then worked as a producer for its expansion, Forsaken.

Sometime in 2019 or 2020, after Bungie ended its partnership with Activision, the company decided that they were going to re-launch their Marathon franchise, with Barrett serving as game director. In July 2024, it was discovered that Barrett had left Bungie the previous April. It was unknown why he left, but the month prior, Joe Ziegler had announced that he had been working on Marathon as the game director for the past nine months. Barrett's Twitter bio had been updated the previous February, replacing "Game Director" with "Executive Creative Director."

In August 2024, it was reported by Bloomberg News that Barrett had been fired by Bungie after an HR investigation found that he had behaved inappropriately with at least eight female employees. The investigation found that he had called lower-level female employees attractive, asked them to play truth-or-dare and made references to his wealth and power within the studio, suggesting that he could help advance their careers.

In a statement to Bloomberg News, Barrett said that throughout nearly 25 years at Bungie, “I feel that I have always conducted myself with integrity and been respectful and supportive of my colleagues, many of whom I consider my closest friends. I never understood my communications to be unwanted and I would have never thought they could possibly have made anyone feel uncomfortable. If anyone ever felt that way about their interaction with me, I am truly sorry.”

Barrett filed a lawsuit against Bungie and Sony on December 12, 2024, alleging they fired him to avoid paying out a $45 million payment as part of Sony's purchase of Bungie in 2022, and that they "deliberately destroyed Barrett’s reputation by falsely, and publicly, insinuating they had ‘investigated’ Barrett and ‘found’ he had engaged in sexual misconduct. Defendants did not care that none of it was true; they had blatant motivations for their brazen scheme."

In February 2025, Sony responded to Barrett's claims with a 128-page filing, which included nine text communications between Barrett and five lower-tiered female employees that it claims “reveal his pattern of misconduct,” where he allegedly called them “hot,” asked about intimate details in their lives, drunk calls where suggestive comments were made, asking if they wanted to be "worshiped," and more.

Lawyers representing Barrett said that "Sony continues to disingenuously cherry pick text messages and alleged conversations and make unsupported and conclusory statements to defame Christopher and justify terminating him to avoid paying him what he was owed under his employment agreements."

Trivia

Barrett's "Meet the Team" sketch

Barrett has discussed Destiny in a variety of press interviews and media, including leading a panel (with Joe Staten) at GDC 2013, giving a series of in-depth interviews to Game Informer, and elsewhere.

From Barrett's "Meet the Team" Bungie.net page from 2012:

Nickname: Barry	Classification: GrizzledAncients
Current Job: Environment Art Director	Origin: Burlington, VT
Blood Type: Classified	Age: Classified
Weight: Classified	Height: Classified
Girth: Classified
First Job: Classified
Hobby: Classified
Ultimate Halo Match: Classified
Ultimate Snack: Classified
Mode of Transport: Classified
Fake Weapon: Classified
Biography Chris has contributed to multiple projects at Bungie including Myth II, Myth II:Chimera, Halo and Halo 2.

Bungie Game Credits

• Myth II: Soulblighter - Level/Scenario Design
• Myth II: Chimera - Project Leader, Artwork, Level Design, Interface Design, Website
• Halo: Combat Evolved - Artist
• Halo 2 - Lead Environment Artist
• Halo 3 - Campaign Environment Lead
• Halo 3: ODST - Additional Art Direction
• Halo: Reach - Environmental Art
• Destiny - Art Director
• Destiny 2 - Game Director
• Marathon - Game Director / Executive Creative Director (pre-production)