If the events of the Sweet Baby Saga, or GamerGate 2, have managed to show the games industry anything it’s that their customers are mostly and quite strongly opposed to woke ideology in the form of DEI. Reflector Entertainment purged their Steam Forums and conducted mass bans over any mention of being associated with Sweet Baby Inc. recently, while other studios quietly began to scrub Sweet Baby’s name off their sites. It’s become clear that while the games industry beats their chest to the tune of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in practice they’ll quickly coverup any association which will hurt their bottom line.
However, a recent post on X by @PC_Focus_ reveals that The Pokemon Company is seeking to pay upwards of $200,000 annually for its own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Director. And based on the Job Summary this role is a very influential position for the franchise as a whole.
Some of these listed responsibilities are talent acquisition and talent management, meaning the DEI Director will have a hand in choosing who will work for the company and how they behave. As well as ‘charitable community engagement’, which would likely mean that DEI will be a heavy and unwanted part of future events surrounding the Pokémon brand.
It’s no secret that Pokémon has fallen far from its glory days. The formula has grown stagnant, and innovation for the brand seems like a distant afterthought. Instead of putting the consumer first and working towards creating a better product to draw in new customers and retain the old ones, The Pokémon Company is prioritizing the toxic inclusion of DEI.
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Mike Kern would reply by showing that The Pokemon Company has been going in this direction for a few years now. Including an unhinged statement by a lawyer for the company stating his goal was to ‘purge’ anti-woke customers. And with the most recent release of Scarlet & Violet, which ditched the typical designs for male and female characters and went in a far more ‘diverse’ direction. That title had placed far more emphasis on its diverse case than on actually delivering a competent follow up for the brand.
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Others would jump in on the side of Pokémon attempting to show it’s ‘always been woke’ by showing images of a popular villain from the original anime named James, who’d occasionally cross-dress as a disguise to trick the protagonist. Sadly, these individuals seem blissfully ignorant to the fact that the anime came out in the 90’s, where, typically, a man dressing as a woman was meant to be taken as a joke. And not a serious statement in favor of the past decade’s abhorrent fascination with gender ideology.
However, it’s possible that this push will allow The Pokémon Company to avoid much needed innovation as a younger fanbase is far less concerned with a quality product and obsessed with being a part of the ‘in-group’ online. In fact many of the posts which seemed to support the idea of infecting Pokémon with DEI seem to genuinely believe that character of James crossdressing wasn’t a joke, but a genuine statement of his ‘gender fluidity’. Likely due to the fact that they weren’t born when the Pokémon anime was originally airing.
In truth, though, the idea that Pokémon was somehow not diverse and in need of such a position is quite laughable, as the franchise never had issues with featuring characters of different ethnic backgrounds. Part of the fun was showcasing different regions of the world as seen through the lens of the Pokémon brand. But DEI isn’t actually about pushing for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It’s about a certain set of mostly political ideals and stances while working to exclude others who do not fall in line with such motivations.
And while this recent news has caused the typical crowd to come out raving in support of The Pokémon Company, it comes just days after said company took an axe to the community. In an unprecedented step, and after confirming they’d only ever target the removal of games seeking to make a profit off the Pokémon brand, Relic Castle was struck by a DMCA takedown on behalf of The Pokémon Company. While the reasons why such a move was taken are largely speculative it does show a complete lack of any respect for the community surrounding Pokémon and people actually interested in breathing new life into the stagnation that has set in.
But pandering to woke ideologues and children desperate for online validation is quite cheap overall. Much cheaper than trying a new formula or listening to longtime customers hoping for improvements with the franchise. Most would willfully lie to themselves that cross-dressing was meant as a serious expression of someone’s identity rather than consider, even for a moment, that there was a time when Pokémon was happy to profit off teaching children that it’s ok to laugh at men wearing dresses.
Will the open embrace of DEI work out for Pokémon? Likely not. As a franchise, it was already very diverse and inclusive. And it never felt the need to shove that forward as the main reason why gamers and others should support the brand. Only time will tell how this plays out.
What are your thoughts on The Pokémon Company seeking to inject DEI into their franchise?
NEXT: Kabrutus & Grummz Urge Game Developers To Come Clean About Sweet Baby Inc. Involvement
Pokémon will be a dead franchise in two to three years.
No, people will continue to buy Pokemon crap by the millions, just like people still give money to Star Wars. We’re talking children and adults with the mental maturity of children here. They’re not going to care if every NPC is now black, gay and female/non-binary, and Ash is now Ashley in a dress. As long as they can catch them some Pikachus and Charizards, they don’t care.
A ton of western liberals already work there I mean look at the designs
I don’t understand why they keep calling it DEI instead of just admitting that it should be called DIE