Troy Leavitt, a former senior producer on the upcoming Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy, has released a video explaining why he resigned from developer Avalanche Software.
Leavitt’s resignation from the developer was announced earlier this month on Twitter, amid backlash surrounding videos he had previously posted on his YouTube channel.
In a video titled, ‘To My Friends at Avalanche’, Leavitt said his decision to leave the project was to do with ongoing “family matters” which had taken a “sharp turn at the beginning of February”. “I now see the situation as chronic and likely to be high maintenance into the foreseeable future,” Leavitt added.
Leavitt stated that while “the articles were a catalyst in this…” (referencing the coverage of his YouTube channel) that “they were not the cause” and that he decided, in light of these family matters, to “re-retire at the beginning of March”.
In addition, sharing his resignation letter on the call, Leavitt wrote that he was leaving “with only the warmest of feelings towards both the Avalanche team and the WB organization”.
Response to controversy
On February 20, Did You Know Gaming?’s Liam Robertson tweeted a link to Leavitt’s personal YouTube channel, accusing him of having made “anti-fem and pro GG [GamerGate] vids”.
“I want to make something clear here – I’m not trying to ‘cancel’ anyone,” Robertson said in a follow-up post. “I just wanted to let people know this because I feel like it’s something people might like to know before deciding whether to support this project. This is all public info and there for anyone to find.”
Leavitt announced his resignation from Avalanche on March 5. “I have made the decision to part ways with Avalanche Software,” Leavitt tweeted. “I have nothing but good things to say about the game, the dev team, and WB Games.”