Fallout writer Chris Avellone will receive over $1 million in settlement over retracted sexual misconduct claims

Fallout New Vegas
(Image credit: Bethesda)

In 2021, video game writer Chris Avellone sued two women who had accused him of sexual misconduct for libel. Today, Avellone has publi🎉shed a joint statement with those two women announcing a settlement of the lawsuit.

The specific terms of the settlement are confidential, but they include a "seven-figure payment" to Avellone, and a joint statement from the two women, Karissa Barrows and Kelly Rae Bristol, saying that "Mr. A🐈vellone never📖 sexually abused either of us." The .

"We have no knowledge that he has ever sexually abused any women," the message continues. "Weꦛ have no knowledge that Mr. Avellone has ever misused corporate funds. Anಌything we have previously said or written about Mr. Avellone to the contrary was not our intent. We wanted to support women in the industry. In so doing, our words have been misinterpreted to suggest specific allegations of misconduct that were neither expressed nor intended."

In June 2020, amid an outpouring of , Barrows and Bristol accused Avellone of sexual misconduct. Following that accusation, studios wꦍhich had been working with Avellone distanced themselves from him, . Following that,♉ Barrows provided more detailed allegations against Avellone to .

"I understand that Ms. Barrows has requeౠsted to retract her comments to the media about me," Avellܫone said in the settlement statement.

A year after the allegations hit, in June 2021, Avellone made a , and filed the lawsuit against Barrow🐽s and Bristol that has now been s𒆙ettled.

"I appreciate the willingness of Ms. Barrows and Ms. Bristol to work with us in addressing issues within the game community, and their advocacy is to be commended and supported," Avellone said in the settlement statement. "There are still many very real challenges that we face but am confident we can face them together. In the spirit of these goals, I would ask everyone to respect😼 the privacy of Ms. Barrows and Ms. Bristol and use this opportunity as a means to listen to all voices in improving our culture and our communities."

As a writer and designer, Avellone contributed to numerous games renowned for their storytelling, including Fallout 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Plane🌠scape: Torment, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, and 2017's Prey.

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) sinc♍e 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writ📖er at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.