RPG Studio Obsidian Faces Class Action Lawsuit Alleging Violations of State Wage Laws
RPG studio Obsidian Entertainment, known for titles such as Fallout: New Vegas, Avowed, and The Outer Worlds, is currently facing a class action lawsuit that accuses the company of systematic wage and hour violations under the California Labor Code and Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) Wage Orders. The legal dispute has been ongoing since October of last year and recently gained more visibility after a Reddit user named macken_zee posted about it on the r/pcgaming subreddit, following the filing of an amended class action complaint in January.
The lawsuit was filed by plaintiff Victoria Turner, who is identified as a QA lead on The Outer Worlds 2 and has also worked on games such as Mass Effect 3 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The class is currently defined as anyone who was employed by Obsidian as a non-exempt employee in California from October 9, 2021, up to the date of class certification. Turner is also seeking to include individuals who left the company on or after October 9, 2022.
The complaint outlines several allegations, including that Obsidian increased its profits by violating state wage laws. These violations allegedly include failing to pay all wages, including minimum wages and overtime, as well as wages due upon separation of employment. The suit further claims that the company did not pay wages in a timely manner and failed to provide lawful meal periods or compensation for their absence. Additionally, it states that Obsidian did not provide rest breaks as mandated by law and did not reimburse necessary business-related costs or provide accurate, itemized wage statements.
In response to the lawsuit, Obsidian filed a response in early March, denying all allegations and presenting a list of 38 points in its defense. Among these points, the company claimed that employees consented to or acquiesced in the alleged conduct. Since March, there has been little movement on the case, and it remains under review.
Back in 2019, Obsidian senior designer Brian Hines told PCGamesN that the company was not a crunch studio, which was one of the reasons people stayed with the company for a long time. Employees were occasionally asked to work additional hours for a week or so, but this was described as a request that developers were free to decline.
