Localization and publishing services provider, XSEED Games, has come under fire after a former developer discovered that her name was scrubbed from the end credits of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel‘s Western version.
Brittany Avery, who worked as Localization Producer on Trails of Cold Steel I and II as well as London Detective Mysteria prior to her departure from XSEED, took to Twitter to voice her disappointment. To add insult to injury, XSEED publicly responded after fans quizzed the company over its actions, and said that it doesn’t have a policy of crediting developers who have left the company.
“The PS4 ending credits for Cold Steel I were updated so my name isn’t in them,” wrote Avery, whose service at XSEED spanned eight years. “I’m guessing it’s the same for Cold Steel II as well. I’ll be really bummed if the same thing happens with Mysteria‘s physical version just because it launched after I left.”
When fans took to XSEED’s Twitter account to reprimand the company over the move, it responded with the following statement:
We appreciate the hard work of everyone who contributes to our releases, but it is and always has been company policy that only current members of our staff are credited. We have never credited staff for their individual roles, or if they have left the company.
This response was unanimously criticized across social media. Many users likened XSEED’s policy to blacklisting employees for advancing their careers. The wording of the statement implies that this policy applies to everyone regardless of their length of service and whether they’ve parted ways with the company on good terms or not.
However, it’s worth noting that XSEED isn’t the first or the only company with this modus operandi. Konami and Square Enix have both come under fire for similar reasons in the past. And lest we forget, L.A. Noire‘s defunct developer, Team Bondi, removed the names of 130 developers who were either laid off or left the studio before the game shipped.
Here’s hoping this practice will be abandoned soon.
[Source: XSEED Games, Brittany Avery (Twitter) via ResetEra]
