A Whistleblower Exposes The Incredibly Toxic Work Environment at Obsidian Entertainment: Internal Slack Messages Celebrating Getting Elon Musk's Attention Over Pronouns Reveals Ideological Hostility and Massive Leadership Failures.
A whistleblower with internal information from Obsidian Entertainment has come forward with shocking screenshots of slack messages from Matt Hansen, completely exposing the company's internal toxic culture. This brave individual reached out to me with a burner email to protect their identity, fearing (of course) for the severe backlash for daring to expose the truth. The information they've shared is honestly pretty troubling - not just for Matt Hansen, but the entire environment that's been created over the past few years at Obsidian - and it paints a very grim picture of what life is like now at - at one time - one of the industry's most beloved game development studios...
As with all my coverage on the video game industry, this insight is for informational purposes only. PLEASE DO NOT reach out, contact, or in any way, shape or form harass ANY of these people named here within this article. The best way for us to fight back against the broken ideology is to simply... shine a light on it, and let nature run it's course.
I've been sent a series of Slack messages from Obsidian's internal communications, revealing a hostile and toxic work environment led by none other than Matt Hansen, Obsidian's Art Director. Hansen, who oversees many employees at the company, has by all accounts, fostered an awful atmosphere where ideological conformity is not just encouraged but demanded.
If you step out of the ideological line, you are pushed OUT of the company.
The Leaked Messages
The internal Slack messages reveal a disturbing trend of 'certain' employees at Obsidian banding together to ridicule and berate Elon Musk (@elonmusk on X) and former Blizzard/World of Warcraft lead Mark Kern (@Grummz on X).
Why? Because they challenge the ideologies of anyone at Obsidian, and its all being encouraged by Hansen's leadership. Here are some key excerpts from the leaked messages:
Matt Hansen (HE/HIM): "This rules. I am fully giddy over it. GG, everybody."
Bre Seale (SHE/THEY): "Stupid will be stupid, but I'll never get over how insane of a hill pronouns are to die on. Like if you have to pretend it's not a fucking backbone of language/grammar and then argue what, you shouldn't be able to choose what people fuckign call you in a role-playing game?"
Matt Hansen (HE/HIM): "He is not a bright man."
Jeremy Tudisco (He/Him): "Can luminaries have negative luminance values?"
Peter Wano: "Isn't that a Dimwit?"
John Winocur (Digimancy): "Not too late to add a rat creature to the game and name it 'Elongated Muskrat' that indistinctly mumbles something about pronouns and drops shoddy blood-soaked emeralds when you stab it!"
The messages reveal an environment where ideological hostility takes a precedence over any sort of professional behavior. Employees are competing in taking increasingly hostile jabs at Musk, where one was even suggesting mocking him through in-game content and killing him.
Then we have someone like Breanna Seale who goes by She/They (huh?) joins in and increases fervor with a the statement: "I'll never get over how insane of a hill pronouns are to die on."
...and John Winocur wanting to create an enemy in the name of Elon Musk to be able to kill it. Feels like these people are infected and have virtual voodoo dolls to stick pins in... Yeah... totally normal line of thinking they have going on upstairs.
"Not too late to add a rat creature to the game and name it 'Elongated Muskrat' that indistinctly mumbles something about pronouns and drops shoddy blood-soaked emeralds when you stab it!"
These people are lost in their ideology, thinking the rest of the world are the crazy ones, unable to look internally at their own faults. They are latching on to what is accepted, and in doing so, creating an unwelcoming environment to actual developers that care about the game they are working on.
While the video game industry is far more laid back compared to most "professional" industries out there, there are still lines that shouldn't be crossed, and this is a perfect example of that... and it's all being actively encouraged and endorsed by a "leader" at Obsidian, Matt Hansen.
A Toxic Leadership
The whistleblower alleges that Matt Hansen is the driving force behind this entire environment. As Art Director, Hansen is in a position of significant influence and responsibility. Yet, instead of fostering a collaborative and an ACTUAL inclusive workplace, he instead chooses to be encouraging division and groupthink. I know, you're all shocked...
One particularly concerning aspect of the messages is Hansen's outright dismissal of differing perspectives. He referred to Musk in derogatory terms and appeared to celebrate the piling on of criticism. This kind of leadership stifles creativity and innovation, replacing them with fear and conformity. If you dare step out of line, you are next on the chopping block.
Recently some very questionable tweets and BlueSky messages from Matt Hansen himself had come to light, painting him in... not the best leader.
I've reached out to Obsidian studio head Feargus Urquhart for comment, and will relay that to you... if anything comes from it.
Matt Hansen Marked "Safe" From Being Fired?
Adding to the concerns with all this, a completely different whistleblower recently reached out to me, revealing that Matt Hansen is reportedly protected by higher-ups at Microsoft, with his job being completely secure... despite the growing backlash and toxic work environment he's cultivated.
This info is pretty wild, especially considering everything that has come to light about his toxic behavior and leadership style. It really makes you wonder—if this protection is indeed the case, why is that? It almost seems like Microsoft themselves is in agreement with, or at least... complicit in, the way Hansen is acting. It all raises serious questions about the company’s stance on fostering healthy and inclusive workplaces. You know... that thing they always drone on about caring for...
The Call to Action
It's time to shine a big spotlight on these actions and hold leaders like Matt Hansen accountable for fostering toxicity in the workplace. Studios like Obsidian need to be places where creativity and innovation thrive, not where employees are bullied into ideological submission.
Gamers deserve better. Developers deserve better. And most importantly - the industry as a whole deserves better. If we want to take gaming back for actual gamers, we need to support whistleblowers like this one and demand accountability from those in positions of power. Only then can we ensure that the games we love remain a bastion of creativity and escapism, free from the stranglehold of toxic ideologies and political agendas.
Let this serve as a rallying cry to expose and dismantle the toxic cultures that are poisoning the entire gaming industry.
It's time to reclaim gaming for the us. The gamers.
~Smash
If you have any information to share about this story or any other insights from within the video game industry, please feel free to share confidentially with me at info@SmashJT.com to get the word out there and continue steering the video game industry BACK in the right direction. Thank you.
The diction used in this article is disgusting fear mongering at its finest. Because people have differing views on this topic it’s now “toxic culture” ? What’s toxic culture is the monstrosity of this excuse of an article. A “ whistleblower” exposed people wanting the freedom to choose their pronouns in games. Let this be a lesson and embarrassment to push way more important gaming topics.
These people are responding to toxicity and hate, not creating it. No one should be under any obligation to tolerate intolerance. You're upset over internal communications that were shared amongst coworkers in private and in confidence? I think it's safe to say anyone who thinks pronouns or representation in gaming is bad probably doesn't work there. Perhaps slack isn't the best place to have those conversations, but if a group of people working on a project want to vent about a person or group of people who look to actively degrade the work they're doing and the people/communities they're representing, then yeah they have every right to. If you're someone who thinks representation and expression is bad then yeah you'll…