Former Exec Sues Snail Games USA, Citing Discrimination

David Runyan, who was the de facto head of Snail Games USA for six months in 2013, is suing his former company and boss over what he deems wrongful termination from the company amidst a pattern of harassment and discrimination.

According to Runyan, working for Snail Games founder and CEO Shi Hai "was extraordinarily difficult as he was a volatile individual who would often make decisions based on raw emotions and snap judgements [sic]." Clashes with Shi Hai were common, even for the highest executives at Snail Games USA, as the company went through four presidents in five years.

In February 2013, Runyan was effectively granted control of the American branch of the company, seeing it through the launch of Age of Wushu in April. Runyan states that Shi Hai terminated "nearly all" of Snail Games USA's marketing team and "made comments about preferring Chinese employees to non-Chinese employees" and that Runyan's decisions were questioned far more than those made by Chinese employees. Issues came to a head after Runyan hurt his back during a company move and was terminated while recuperating -- a time during which he claims to have provided ample medical evidence of his injury to Shi Hai, who accused him of faking it, and was working from home.

It's a long and nasty list of allegations, which you can read in more detail here or from the original source here. We'll try to get a copy of the lawsuit and update it with any more relevant information.

EDITOR'S UPDATE: Massively is reporting that Snail Games is also the subject of another lawsuit, this time in the guise of a copyright claim from Blizzard over the use of certain Panda images. Looks like it's not a good day to be a Snail Games employee.