Sweet Baby Inc. against Steam users. Gamergate 2.0 or simple dissatisfaction of individual players?

Recently, a scandal broke out online surrounding the company Sweet Baby Inc., which deals with issues of equality and diversity. Some people say her actions are detrimental to the gaming industry. In our article you will find a detailed story about this organization and its confrontation with Steam users.

Studio Sweet Baby Inc. was founded in 2018 by former Ubisoft employees Kim Belair and David Bedard. The official website states that the company consults with video game developers and writers to make their projects “more fun, engaging and inclusive.” The emphasis should be on the last word. It implies that the games will pay due attention to women and representatives of various minorities, and that no one will offend them. Sweet Baby Inc. affects the plot and characters – their character, design and voice acting.

You can see the fruits of her labor in God of War: Ragnarok, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Alan Wake2 Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Gotham Knights and Starfield. As you can see, among them there are both failed and quite successful projects. It is curious that representatives of Sweet Baby Inc. It is recommended to involve their advisors at an early stage of development, so that later you do not have to radically change the plot, characters and their appearance. Apparently there were such cases.

Sweet Baby Inc. is not the only company that provides advice on inclusion issues. For example, Black Girl Gamers collaborated with Luminous Productions on To leave. Hitdetection employees offer similar services. Its clients include SEGA, Remedy Entertainment and Bloober Team.

Each development team has its own writers responsible for plot and character development. However, they agree to receive advice from Sweet Baby Inc. because of the financing by the largest American investment funds: BlackRock and Vanguard. Modern video games require a lot of spending and don’t always pay off, but these companies make sure you can get extra money before they’re released. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has publicly stated that he will push for diversity and that if partners do not comply, he will cut off financial support for them.

But there is one more factor that is worth paying attention to. Director of Sweet Baby Inc. Kim Belair hints at ‘cancelling’ publishers who refuse to cooperate. We are talking about boycotting a person or brand on social networks, withdrawing support and general condemnation.

There has already been a similar case in the gaming industry, even though it is not related to Sweet Baby Inc. In early 2023, activists launched an effort to… Hogwarts Legacy because of its association with writer Joanne Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books. The project was not nominated for The Game Awards 2023 and was not allowed to be discussed in some forums. But this did not stop the game from becoming the most successful last year. The number of copies sold exceeded 22 million copies.

But let’s get back to Sweet Baby Inc. Here is a partial list of tips from this company that have led to plot changes in various video games:

It is worth noting that the specific role of Sweet Baby Inc. consultants. remains unknown. And sometimes this organization removes mentions of itself if the game ultimately doesn’t sell. This was the case, for example, with Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew.

Judging from the comments, players have grown dissatisfied with the policies of a number of publishers in recent years. They are particularly irritated by the desire to spread wok culture, creating the appearance of gender and racial equality. Users linked current trends to Sweet Baby Inc.’s activities. The result was a curated group on Steam called Sweet Baby Inc. detected. Her job is to point out the games Kim Belair and her company are involved in. It does not remove projects from the store, demote them in the search engine or affect the recommendation lists in any way. Whether or not they boycott it is up to the users themselves.

Perhaps this community would have gone unnoticed if the representatives of Sweet Baby Inc. had not been there myself. They demanded that it be “cancelled” and encouraged other users to contact the administration to check whether the group violated the platform’s rules. In addition, articles appeared in specialist publications such as Game Developer, Eurogamer, Kotaku and PC Gamer, which featured Sweet Baby Inc. supported. in this case. Community Sweet Baby Inc. detected was indeed about to be removed due to the high number of complaints, and all discussions taking place on the forums had to be cleared up. However, Valve representatives intervened in the matter. They stated that the group was operating under the Steam User Agreement and dropped all charges. Currently, 280 thousand people have subscribed to the group.

Taking This, a nonprofit organization sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, joined the discussion. She also promotes the ideas of inclusion and equality. Its head, Rachel Kowert, called what happened Gamergate 2.0, saying that there is no place for hate, harassment and toxic behavior in the gaming industry, and that such incidents should be avoided. Therefore, according to the girl, companies should follow the actions of Sweet Baby Inc. publicly condemn. detected.

Representatives of the gaming industry did not remain silent. For example, Joe Tirado, creative director at Astroneer, said that the games lack diversity or, in other words, have too few women in them. For example, he recalled that of the 25 projects that became bestsellers in the past three years, only one had a girl as the main character, and another had a Latina. The statement is loud, but only if you don’t open the list of games he’s talking about. It contains Mortal Kombat 1, Madden NFL 24 and EA Sports FC 24, which do not have one specific protagonist, but also Diablo 4 Star Field and Hogwarts Legacy, where you can play as a man or a woman.

Mary Kenney, screenwriter at Insomniac Games, spoke about this situation. She claims that representatives of Sweet Baby Inc. they simply help advance the plot and add depth to the characters, but the final say always remains with the development studio.

Bungie story designer Robert Brookes was more categorical. According to him, those who believe that inclusion, diversity and equality ruin games need to grow up.

Mark Kern, who contributed Warcraft 2, Diablo2 and World of Warcraft said publishers have been forced to turn to various funds willing to finance development. In response, companies are offering tips to help achieve gender balance.

The writer James Lindsay, author of the book ‘Cynical Theories’, was not spared from what happened. He stated that such a plan to obtain money through investment funds has already exhausted itself and will soon lead to the bankruptcy of the studios that use it. Like Rachel Covert, he noted that this is Gamersgate 2.0. Notably, his message was reposted by Elon Musk adding “Wow.” Usually a billionaire speaks his mind when the situation gets really serious. Perhaps in the near future we will see a new round of scandals with the most unexpected consequences.

At the end of the article I would like to note that the blame for the failure of a game does not always lie with an external studio that provides advice. The developers are still responsible for the gameplay and graphics. A good example is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Moreover, some programmers themselves support wok culture and like to introduce its ideas into their projects.

What do you think of the situation with Sweet Baby Inc.? Share your thoughts in the comments!