Embark Studios has parted ways with co-founder and CCO Rob Runesson after public allegations were made saying that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a popular streamer of The Finals. There was an external legal investigation that Embark claims "did not substantiate" the allegations.
The allegations first surfaced about a month ago. The allegations were made by an anonymous person and read live on stream by a different streamer of The Finals, Balise. These same allegations were then through Google Docs and discussed on Reddit across a couple of different threads.
IGN was able to get a first-hand look at the allegations as they were shared through Google Docs. Here is their summary of the situation as they know it, including a brief update from the anonymous accuser:
In summary, the anonymous person claims they were in contact with a popular female streamer of The Finals, who allegedly spoke to them frequently about engaging in a romantic and sexual relationship with Runesson. The anonymous accuser says the female streamer reported becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Runesson's requests for sexual conversations and favors as well as concerned about the potential conflict of interest they presented, but felt they could not push back due to becoming financially dependent on Runesson's promotion of her streams. The anonymous accuser claims they eventually went to an Embark community lead to report the behavior, but was not made aware of any action being taken to investigate at that time.
Update 8:34am PT: IGN has spoken with the streamer in question who declined to comment on record, but stated that a number of the allegations circulated were out of context or misleading.
Update 8:34am PT: IGN has spoken with the streamer in question who declined to comment on record, but stated that a number of the allegations circulated were out of context or misleading.
Our leadership team was recently made aware of allegations against an Embark employee. We take these matters seriously, and as a part of our process for addressing any types of allegations, we immediately hired a law firm to conduct an external investigation. The investigation did not substantiate the allegations, but we found the situation unsustainable and mutually agreed to part ways with Rob.
Embark Studios is the development studio behind The Finals and the extreme popular extraction shooter, Arc Raiders.
