Open Roads splits from Fullbright over Steve Gaynor ‘toxic’ allegations

Roads Open development continued onward after Fullbright co-founder Steve Gaynor stepped down as the game’s creative direction following complaints of “mistreatment” from employees. Now, Open Roads is moving forward without the Fullbright name; the development team is now simply called “The Open Roads Team.”

Gaynor announces his departure. Roads Open A newsletter was published on Friday. “But after a great deal of consideration, it’s just no longer Fullbright’s place to represent Roads Open publicly going forward,” Gaynor wrote. “It will be credited to ‘The Open Roads Team’ at launch.”

Open RoadsIt was announced by Annapurna as a major independent film in 2020, starring Keri (Russell).AmericansKaitlyn dever (Booksmart). Problems in development —and Gaynor’s leadership style — began early on, with 15 employees having left the company since 2019, the majority of whom were women. In our report from August 2021, several employees said he created a “toxic” and “unhealthy” environment for the team.

Gaynor was removed from active development in March 2021 due to a “pattern of women leaving” the company, a Fullbright representative told Polygon. “Steve stepped down in March 2021 after it became clear that the steps that were already being taken to improve his interactions with the team were only yielding temporary results,” the representative said at the time. “More drastic action was needed for the health of the team.”

News of the departure went public months later in August alongside Polygon’s report on the studio’s problems with Gaynor. The studio had six employees left at the time, to carry on development. Roads Open; it’s unclear how many are working on Roads OpenNow as The Open Roads Team

Gaynor has not publicly commented on Roads OpenIt is not clear what his intentions are since 2021. This newsletter was published last Friday and it’s the first notice that has been made public since. He’s now working on a game independently, as a solo developer, saying that his “own strengths do not lie with attempting to manage a large project or direct the work of others.”

Polygon reached out to The Open Roads Team (The Open Roads Team), Annapurna interactive, and Gaynor, for comments. TheOpen RoadsTeam, Gaynor Interactive and Annapurna have all been reached out to by Polygon in order to get their comments. Roads Open Steam page lists the game as “coming soon,” but an exact date is not listed. Game Informer interviews current game developers Roads Open developers from 2021 suggested that the game shifted from something “really plot focused” to “something much more character-focused,” a closer too at the relationship between mother and daughter — a relationship that’s not been explored much in games.