Producer on Hogwarts Legacy quits after history of anti-social justice videos exposed

Hogwarts Legacy trailer - Two young wizards in class use wands on their cauldron

(Image credit: Warner Bros., Avalanche)

Troy Leavitt has announced that he's resigned from his position at Avalanche Software. Leavitt was a producer on the forthcoming Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy, a game that has attracted controversy because of series creator J.K. Rowling's heel-turn into transphobia in recent years. The reputation of Hogwarts Legacy wasn't helped by the discovery Leavitt had been a reactionary YouTuber with a channel containing videos in defense of GamerGate, and critical of social justice and Anita Sarkeesian's Feminist Frequency series.

Leavitt wrote that, "I have nothing but good things to say about the game, the dev team, and WB Games" and unsurprisingly "will be releasing a YouTube Video about this soon on my channel." In a follow-up tweet, he continued, "I felt absolutely secure in my position. However, I still wanted to resign for reasons that I will explain in that forthcoming video. I'm in excellent spirits and very pleased with my relationship with WB and Avalanche."

To clarify: I felt absolutely secure in my position. However, I still wanted to resign for reasons that I will explain in that forthcoming video . I’m in excellent spirits and very pleased with my relationship with WB and Avalanche. 😄👍March 5, 2021

Leavitt's YouTube videos were highlighted by Liam Robertson, creator of the Did You Know Gaming series. Robertson explained that, "I feel like it's something people might like to know before deciding whether to support this project" and noted in particular Leavitt's video 'In Defense of John Lasseter', in which he described the #MeToo movement as "moral panic."

In a video titled 'Bushnell Did Nothing Wrong!', Leavitt claimed his employers at WB Games knew about his YouTube sideline, and didn't have a problem with it. "Not that they endorse anything that I've said, of course," he said, "but at least they seem more concerned with making good games than with pushing some kind of a social-justice agenda, so there is hope."

According to a recent Bloomberg report some of the developers working on Hogwarts Legacy fought to make the game more inclusive, and it will apparently feature a "trans-inclusive" character creator.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.