David Ballard was an environmental artist and level designer throughout most of the Uncharted series in addition to The Last of Us. I say "was" because Ballard parted ways from Naughty Dog in 2016, though it seems as though he did not leave on friendly terms.

He says he was fired from Naughty Dog after suffering a mental breakdown in early 2016 as a result of being "sexually harassed at Naughty Dog by a lead" in late 2015. He states that Sony tried to buy his silence about what happened to him. I'll let his own words speak for themselves on the matter.


Ballard's reveal of this information comes at a time when several Hollywood and related industry people are finding the strength to state publicly that they were victims of sexual assault. These stories are being shared in the wake of several women coming forward to accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexually assaulting them over the course of decades. People like Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Mira Sorvino, and very many more all have similar stories to share. Even "strong" men like Terry Crews are not immune to being sexually assaulted by those perceived to be in "power."

David Ballard is just one of many such persons coming forward, but the first at this present time to come forward in the gaming industry. If these allegations are true, the actions by both Naughty Dog and Sony after Ballard revealed what happened are absolutely disgusting. It should also be noted that another person replied to Ballard's Tweets saying that they also used to be harassed by someone at Naughty Dog while they were employed there. This person has since deleted their Tweet.