Embark Studios, the dev behind Arc Raiders and The Finals has “mutually agreed to part ways” with co-founder and CCO Rob Runesson following public allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a popular The Finals streamer, as well as an external legal investigation that Embark claims “did not substantiate” the allegations.
These allegations, shared by an anonymous person, first arose around a month ago via The Finals streamer Balise who read them on stream. The anonymous allegations were later shared through multiple Google docs viewed by IGN, shared across various The Finals social communities.
In summary, the anonymous person claims they were in contact with a popular female streamer of The Finals, who allegedly spoke to them frequently about engaging in a romantic and sexual relationship with Runesson. The anonymous accuser says the female streamer reported becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Runesson’s requests for sexual conversations and favors as well as concerned about the potential conflict of interest they presented, but felt they could not push back due to becoming financially dependent on Runesson’s promotion of her streams. The anonymous accuser claims they eventually went to an Embark community lead to report the behavior, but was not made aware of any action being taken to investigate at that time.
Update 8:34am PT: IGN has spoken with the streamer in question who declined to comment on record, but stated that a number of the allegations circulated were out of context or misleading.
Original story continues below:
In response, Embark says it has parted ways with Runesson. Here is Embark’s statement, in full:
“Our leadership team was recently made aware of allegations against an Embark employee. We take these matters seriously, and as a part of our process for addressing any types of allegations, we immediately hired a law firm to conduct an external investigation. The investigation did not substantiate the allegations, but we found the situation unsustainable and mutually agreed to part ways with Rob.”
Runesson was one of the co-founders of Embark, along with fellow former EA DICE employees Magnus Nordin, Stefan Strandberg, Patrick Söderlund, Jenny Huldschiner and Johan Andersson. He has frequently been a public face for the company as its profile has grown through The Finals and Arc Raiders, both through interviews as well as direct community engagement.
These accusations come at the same time as another, similar controversy where multiple male The Finals esports players have been accused of inappropriate behavior toward women in the community. In a Discord statement from one month ago, Embark announced it would be pausing its current outbound esports efforts while it underwent an evaluation and review of its competitive system. “We have reviewed these concerns carefully, including with external legal counsel, and are confident that at this time, our decisions and actions have been appropriate and within the scope of our responsibilities as a publisher and organizer. We take these matters seriously.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
