320°

Arrowhead Studios' CCO Speaks Out Against Forcing 'DEI' Into Games

Arrowhead Studios' CCO has spoken out against shoehorning DEI into games, suggesting that anything that doesn't 'add value' isn't worth it.

Read Full Story >>
insider-gaming.com
gold_drake154d ago

i would agree with that.

give us good characters.

Eonjay153d ago (Edited 153d ago )

I agree (focus on making it fun) but I think some of the onus is on us to guard ourselves from being rage baited. It honestly shouldn't matter what or who a game is about. It's an art form so we can't censor it if it doesn't match our sensibilities.

Also there is no distinction made between 'forced DEI' and having, say, a black female character. Does 'forced' simply mean some demographic you don't want to see?

I have never been playing a game and got upset at character demographics even when player as a female, another race or sexuality. Maybe if I let myself get rage baited into oblivion then I get upset at a game character.

But alas, I play games not politics.

1nsomniac153d ago

Totally agree with all that you have said however, it can be quite obvious sometimes when it has been forced rather than natural. I think this is what tends to anger the majority. Some people are just numpties and will just instantly refuse to accept certain colour or genders. The vast majority do see when its blatantly forced down their throats purely on a tick box basis and doesn't really make any sense!

SoloZelot90153d ago (Edited 153d ago )

Forced means that in the concept development stage someone said...we have to have a black/female/masculine etc protagonist or character. Or we have to have a bi or trans side character etc.

Developing characters based on identity, race or sexual orientation is shallow and stupid. And as we can easily see...any and all characters developed that way are pretty poorly written mainly because writing was second to inclusivity.

By itself none of those things are issues but the writing is where we get the gist of the goal in mind. So obviously given recent events people are naturally on guard against this crap

senorfartcushion153d ago

You know there's something bad going on when the majority opinion is that media - games or films or whatever - are different things from talking about politics when Human interaction in any way = something filled with politics.

You've experienced politics hundreds of times today alone and you don't even know it. You're not adult enough to see it.

That's scary, man.

-Gespenst-153d ago

@1nsomniac: It seems to me that the moment you put, in your game, a character who is at once not a villain/antagonist, and is either a woman who isn't a sex object, or a person with a disability, or a black woman, or a gay person, and so on, you immediately get accused of "forcing" DEI and wokeness, regardless of whether or not that was your intent. I don't think it's as easy as you think to tell when it's "natural", or "forced". All that besides, there are people who probably know the example they're raging about is "natural", but just don't like that the character(s) in question is of a demographic they are bigoted towards, so they claim that it's forced DEI, because that's a reason to make this stuff stop that people can get behind - you won't win very many people over by openly being a bigot. My point is that we need to be careful what we call "forced", and we need to scrutinise the people who claim as much, because they might be spreading misinformation for the sake of their own bigoted agenda, consciously or unconsciously.

@SoloZelot90: Your definition is based on information that, like 90% of the time, you won't have or be privy to. What do you know of the "concept development stage" of any videogame? Or any other form of art or entertainment, for that matter. I agree that there are some examples where it is evident that "DEI" has been shoehorned in tokenistically, but it's not as easy to discern as you seem to think it is. There are definitely countless examples of things that have been wrongly accused of "forced DEI". Just because something features a character of a demographic atypical of the medium does not necessarily mean DEI has been forced into it, and yet this is what many people seem to believe - they pounce on nearly every single example indiscriminately. Sometimes it seems like the only way to do DEI "right" is to not do it at all. The standards of the anti-DEI people seem near impossible to meet.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 153d ago
Kratos_Kart2007153d ago

If the color or gender of a character makes them bad..then your problem may be bigger than games...

gold_drake153d ago

not saying that at all.
but often times, a character is just there to fill a "quota" and thats their whole personality.

i played plenty of games with female leads or with different nationalities that were good written characters.

thats what i want. good written characters.

Obscure_Observer154d ago

And now their chances to be acquired by Sony are zero, since Playstation is "focused" on DEI:

https://sonyinteractive.com...

What a dumb fellow... Lol

Rimeskeem154d ago

Sony was talking about making diverse developing teams that can feel welcomed in the gaming industry and not feel marginalized. Arrowhead is talking about not forcing diversity into the games they make and letting it be more about what they want to make then an agenda.

Very different things.

Rockstar154d ago

Everything is a console war to obscure, common sense be damned...

Obscure_Observer154d ago (Edited 154d ago )

@Rimeskeem

"Very different things."

Oh yeah? What about TLOU, TLOU 2, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Spider-Man 2, God of War: Ragnarok and Concord to name a few? Literally all of those games has been trashed by haters because of "DEI and Woke Agendas" and you know it.

So you can play coy and deny all you want, but the undeniable fact is that Sony has being hated by incels and anti-woke weirdos because of DEI reflected in their games and that´s why ALL of their new upcoming first party blockbusters are been hated by incels on the internet right now!

Intergalactic, Ghost of Yotei, Wolverine... Go ahead, do some research and prove me wrong.

From2008154d ago

@Obscure_something I have never seen a user on this site get as many disagreements as you. It's impressive.

pwnmaster3000154d ago

Because he is full of crap and spin shit.

I mean look at the link he provided. Rimeskeem explained it perfectly.

goken153d ago

That’s because he is obscured in his observations to the point of parody.

154d ago
-Foxtrot153d ago

Are you really that desperate now you have to throw in that kind of comment

You do realise most companies are doing this including MS, but you don’t care do you? Only when it’s Sony.

Kind of funny, I thought this kind of comment would have been kept for one of your alt accounts. Feels more in line with one of them when you are free to completely go off the handle.

S2Killinit153d ago (Edited 153d ago )

Please stop the horrible contribution you make to every article Mr. Obscure (including your multitude of alt accounts).

Sincerely,

Fellow N4G user.

1Victor153d ago (Edited 153d ago )

@obscured: “ And now their chances to be acquired by Sony are zero, since Playstation is "focused" on DEI:”

Bad news buddy Microsoft isn’t going to buy them ether 🤣
https://www.microsoft.com/e...
.
Edit: Oh and don’t say they don’t need it because those PUBLISHERS they bought they do DEI too 🤣 so suck on that Dino Bon_er🤣

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 153d ago
jjb1981154d ago

Whatever happened to developers ever wanting to create their vision? Oh yeah, Black Myth Wukong.

CrimsonWing69154d ago (Edited 154d ago )

Here’s the deal, don’t force it and if you include it, add nuance to it. It doesn’t need to be a character who breaks the fourth wall and looks at the audience to tell us if you ain’t gay, trans, bi, or brown then you ain’t sh*t.

Make a character with depth and let their character define who they are, not their skin color or sexual orientation. I believe there’s ways to include characters like this in a game and still appeal to an audience who doesn’t care.

The issue for me is the censorship of stuff that a majority of people think looks visually appealing, removing everything that isn’t woke while preaching how everyone who doesn’t view the world with their perspective is the problem, and making everything so squeaky f*cking clean. It’s annoying, especially when these people cry about inclusivity. If they’re all about inclusivity then why are they trying to make all content in games and media exclusively what they want?

We were doing just fine with the original Dragon Age release. None of it felt woke even when you had a bisexual elf in the party. Now, you’ve lost all sense of nuance and basically feel like some evangelical movie where you break out in the middle of it to tell us a Bible verse and then tell the audience why they need to be saved.

Just treat it like it’s a background element. No straight character starts off preaching to everyone about their sexual preferences and sh*t. Maybe try to be more like that and less… preachy.

Eonjay153d ago

'who breaks the fourth wall and looks at the audience to tell us if you ain’t gay, trans, bi, or brown then you ain’t sh*t.'

Wait a minute... where did this go down?

CrimsonWing69153d ago

It’s hyperbole to prove a point.

The point that I’m emphasizing is things like in Dragon Age when a character accidentally misgenders another character, the conversation is so forced that it’s, and bear with me for comparisons sake through communication here, like in a play where everything goes dark and a spotlight is cast on a character who addresses the audience to lecture about misgendering a character.

Same with Alan Wake 2, where Alan is trying to help Saga and her response is saying, “I’m not going to let some white a**-hole tell me what to do,” it’s just one of those things that comes off forced in the same regard as addressing the audience directly.

There’s a bunch of other examples if you need more.

And for the record I enjoyed Veilguard and Alan Wake 2. Did you ever see the Mario Kart SNL skit where Toad jumps out to announce who he is and how he’s bisexual? It comes off like that and I’m saying add nuance when introducing characters and ideologies.

An example, think of Bill in the Last of Us. He’s a fantastic character, actually one of my favorites, who is GAY (you taking notes @Kartos_Kart2007). It never felt forced and it didn’t become his defining characteristic.

Does that make more sense to you?

Elda154d ago

What is DEI into video games?

The_Blue154d ago

Something people could put the blame like that Days Gone dev.

Elda154d ago

What blame did Bend studios get?

-Foxtrot153d ago

I don’t agree with what he said BUT journalists did come off like they had it in for Days Gone when it was announced and some of those reviews were far too harsh

Any other time when a game gets a day one update reviewers will wait for it or mention how things will be fixed in it later on, for Days Gone they ripped it apart despite letting it slide with other games. It felt like double standards.

The game wasn’t perfect but they never liked the look at it from the moment it was announced.

Eidolon154d ago

Days Gone devs got flak for the white characters IIRC.

Eidolon154d ago

And what are you even asking? It is clear there is some initiative for the game industry to create more diverse (against the grain) characters just to satisfy a target audience that doesn't exist.

Elda153d ago (Edited 153d ago )

Why would Bend studios get flak for having White characters? Why would Bend studios get any flak for having human beings in their games period? Make it make sense.

Kratos_Kart2007153d ago

What target audience is that?

Kratos_Kart2007153d ago

A character that isn't an oiled up muscular white dude...

Eidolon153d ago

"What target audience is that?"
Exactly.

And I think Deacon was the initial reason for the flak and then people started nitpicking, and not because he wasn't oiled and muscular.

Tacoboto153d ago

Deacon was an insufferably written character that was fussy and whiny to every NPC he interacted with in the first half of that horribly paced game.

If nitpicks spiraled out about that game's characters, it starts with him.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 153d ago
Show all comments (55)
140°

Introducing Project Defiant, the first wireless fight stick designed by Sony

First look at the upcoming controller, which uses PlayStation Link technology to deliver wireless connectivity with ultra-low latency for fighting games.

Read Full Story >>
blog.playstation.com
darthv721d 9h ago

Interesting.... I'll get one.

1d 6h ago
Babadook71d 6h ago (Edited 1d 5h ago )

Great for Marvel Tokon Fighting
Souls (which looked amazing).

Disccordia1d 1h ago

It can also be used wired which is fairly important to note. Anybody using this thing competitively won't go anywhere near wireless.

170°

CD Projekt RED History Suggests The Witcher 4 Demo May Be More Marketing Than Gameplay

The history of CD Projekt RED suggests that the recently shown demo for The Witcher 4 may be more marketing than actual gameplay.

Read Full Story >>
twistedvoxel.com
Sonyslave31d 16h ago

Not only CDPR but Epic Games as well i still haven't seen any game with that fidelty of that Ps5 tech demo .. that was 2020

VenomUK1d 8h ago (Edited 1d 8h ago )

Digital Foundry in its reaction video said they believe the demo reflects real performance, as overstating it’s competence on PS5 could bring significant risks to Epic Games’ shareholders and legal risks.

https://youtu.be/5PIyPpB83V...

Eonjay17h ago

Actually Horizon Forbidden West exceeds this in image quality. So it seems very plausible. Intergalactic is actually beyond this presntation in IQ, RT and resolution and thats locked 60FPS as well. As far as the usage of hardware RT in UE, they were able to reduce the CPU overhead.

This was a tech demo for UE 5.6. That was clearly stated and is evident by the presentation itself where several of the new features of UE are highlighted

This article title is inaccurate because this was not a demo for Witcher 4. It was a technical demonstration of Unreal Engine 5.6.

Christopher1d 15h ago (Edited 1d 15h ago )

***Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay features that were showcased in initial footage but never made it into the final game***

They literally made a big deal of telling everyone that they changed the gameplay of CP2077 during development and then did a new demo of the game with the new gameplay. There was no hiding this to the public. CP2077's problem with the buggy as heck and obviously too early release.

This is really bad journalism to promote this line of thinking. It's an attempt to rewrite history. You can definitely say you preferred the initial demo, but they were very open and clear when they moved from third-person to first-person that it would include major changes in gameplay and showed those off multiple times a year prior to the game's release.

---

As to the point of this article? Yeah, the whole event is a marketing event. I don't trust anything until it's released, tbh. No matter who is making it. I can still be excited by what I see, but it's not going to get me to pre-order a game or get me to go out there and sell what I saw as if it will be just like that in the full release.

neutralgamer19921d 10h ago

What about the fact CDPR showed gameplay behind closed doors which wasn't real? They dusnt allow anyone to bring their phones or any tech so once media came out of that gameplay reveal CP2077 was hyped to the moon and back. CDPR didn't show console gameplay so let's not act like they were transparent when they switched from 3rd to 1st person when they lied at launch of the game

Christopher1d 9h ago

You mean rumors? You want me to comment on rumors from Bloomberg? We arguing the belief of rumors now and not news?

Here's that fake demo - https://www.youtube.com/wat...

If you've played the game, you know how much that lines up with the final product. That's what I know.

***let's not act like they were transparent when they switched from 3rd to 1st person when they lied at launch of the game***

They literally re-demoed the game with the change, so they were transparent. You're just acting like they weren't when in 2018 they literally demoed the new gameplay. That's 2 years prior to release.

I don't know what they 'lied at launch of the game' is supposed to mean.

-

This game had enough wrong with it at release that we don't need to be arguing rumors and online hatred of the gameplay changes shown in 2018.

neutralgamer19921d 9h ago

Christopher, just to clarify — I'm not trying to be overly negative or dismissive. I fully acknowledge that CD Projekt Red was transparent when they switched from third-person to first-person and even re-demoed the game to reflect that. Credit where it’s due — they did show that change publicly.

But the real issue for me is how the game launched. Despite that transparency earlier on, they deliberately withheld gameplay from the console versions and still charged full price for something that was nowhere near ready. That’s where trust was broken. The game was released in a clearly unfinished and broken state, and it took years to get it into a playable condition. That goes beyond mistakes — that’s a serious failure in leadership and consumer respect.

So when I see something like the Witcher 4 tech demo — and yes, I understand it’s Epic showcasing Unreal Engine 5 — I can’t help but approach it with caution. It’s not blind skepticism, but earned skepticism. A lot of the original developers have left CDPR, so we can’t assume this next game will automatically reach Witcher 3 levels of excellence.

I want it to be amazing. We all do. But I’m not going to fully believe the hype until independent gamers and trusted content creators — people with a reputation for honesty and not being paid off — get their hands on it and say, “Yes, this is great.” Until then, it’s just marketing.

They built up enormous goodwill after The Witcher 3 and the free DLCs — but they lost much of that with Cyberpunk's release. Even platform holders like PlayStation and Xbox, who once trusted CDPR to self-certify, don’t anymore. That alone speaks volumes.

Again, it’s not hate — it’s caution born from experience

CrimsonIdol1d 8h ago

"Despite that transparency earlier on, they deliberately withheld gameplay from the console versions"
It was a multiplatform release, and yes they botched it, but clearly consoles weren't lead development platform, PC was. They clearly were hoping that they could get everything together by launch, and this was a mistake. I think them showing this running on a PS5 is a clear indicator that they've learnt from this.

But there are plenty of reasons not to get too excited about this, and it's not hidden behind any lies, it's right there watermarked on the footage. this is a technical presentation of the Unreal 5 engine, running on the PS5 at 60fps. This is technology that may be in the Witcher, this is not the Witcher.

Lightning771d 15h ago

Because it is marketing. Epic did the flying sand girl in 2020 now this with Witcher. I still wanna see what games shows the original showing of Unreal 5? It's been 5 years exactly.

Michiel19891d 10h ago

ofc it is, no real gameplay suddenly xrays a horse to show how its muscles are moving realistically.

CrimsonIdol1d 8h ago

It literally had text telling you it wasn't gameplay.

Extermin8or3_14h ago

They were literally showing off the fact it seamlessly can transition from gameplay to ctsceme those aspects of presentation were clear cutscenes....

Show all comments (23)
90°

Giant Skull, A Studio Founded By Respawn Veterans, Is Making A D&D Game

The studio was founded in March of 2024 by Stig Asmussen, director of the Star Wars: Jedi games.

Read Full Story >>
gameinformer.com