'Ghost of Yotei' Developer Opens Up Two Months After Getting Fired for Bad Joke on Charlie Kirk's Death

Drew Harrison, a developer who worked on Sucker Punch's hit video game Ghost of Yotei, has spoken publicly for the first time since she was fired in September over a controversial joke about the assassination of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.

The artist says her dismissal was not caused by the 'bad joke' alone but by the harassment she and her colleagues received in the hours that followed.

Harrison, who had been with Sucker Punch for years, was removed from her post shortly after posting a crudely worded joke on Bluesky reacting to Kirk's killing. In an article published on 24 November, she told Aftermath that Sony Interactive Entertainment moved quickly to terminate her without investigating the coordinated harassment campaign targeting her and other staff members.

Harassment Campaign 'Bigger Than a Joke', Harrison Says

In her interview, Harrison said her firing cannot be separated from the long-running online hostility directed at Ghost of Yotei, lead actress Erika Ishii and the studio's efforts to diversify its creative teams.

'It wasn't just the joke,' she said. 'It feels like nobody investigated the harassment me and my coworkers were receiving.'

Months before the game's release, figures such as former game executive Mark Kern, known online as 'Grummz', targeted Ishii's casting as protagonist Atsu. Kern shared memes mocking the queer actress and questioned Sucker Punch's creative decisions, comments that fuelled wider backlash from reactionary corners of the gaming community.

As the game's launch approached, tensions continued to rise, with accusations, memes and selective screenshots circulating widely. Harrison said this environment created a foundation for the fury that erupted after her Bluesky post.

Death Threats, Harassing Calls and Office Phones Unplugged

Harrison said that hours after her post went viral she received a surge of threatening messages. Anonymous accounts called her a 'worm', told her to kill herself and insisted she would never work again. She said several colleagues contacted her the next morning to say they had also received harassing messages.

According to Harrison, an office manager later informed her that Sucker Punch's phone lines had been flooded with anonymous calls. She said staff were instructed to unplug their desk phones because the volume of calls was so high.

Trying to maintain a sense of normalcy, Harrison posted in the companywide chat: 'I made the worst people on the internet mad. As an apology, there are banana muffins in the kitchen.' Colleagues expressed concern, but the situation escalated quickly.

By midday, a member of the studio's leadership posted Sony's social media policy in the office chat and warned staff about a 'developing situation'. Employees were told the studio might need to delay a planned trailer release because of the attention surrounding Harrison's post.

Hours later, she was summoned to a video call with a Sony human resources representative she had never met. Within minutes, she was fired.

Sony Said Her Post 'Celebrated Violence'

Harrison said she asked for clarification during the call and was told that her post was 'celebrating and inciting violence'. When she asked which part of the post did so, she said she was told it was 'the comments'.

Harrison insisted she would have apologised if anyone had asked. 'At no point did anyone ask me to delete it. At no point did anyone ask me to apologize and for the record, I would have. I would have worked with PR to write an apology.'

More than a week later, Sucker Punch studio head Brian Fleming told Gamefile that the company condemned 'making light of someone's murder', but he declined to discuss the situation any further.

Backlash Against the Game Continues

Harrison's firing, encouraged by Kern and streamer Zack 'Asmongold' Hoyt, did not stop the torrent of hostility directed at Ghost of Yotei. Detractors also targeted Ishii's nomination for Best Performance at The Game Awards, calling her a 'terrorist' over a previous joke in which she said she was antifa. Others circulated false claims about the game's story and suggested that sales numbers were fabricated.

Despite the sustained backlash, Ghost of Yotei launched to strong sales and critical acclaim. Harrison said the experience has left her 'extremely depressed and isolated' and unsure whether she wants to remain in an industry she feels 'does not value its employees or support women and diversity'.

'I have accepted that even Sucker Punch is changing from what I really loved about it,' she said. 'That has been helping me move on knowing that I was there for the best of it.'