Xbox Doubles Down On DEI Agenda Following Sweet Baby Inc Backlash

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) has now come to a close, but many of the topics that were discussed there remain a mystery. Following right on the heels of the Sweet Baby Inc backlash, the GDC could not have been scheduled at a more inopportune time for DEI activists in the games industry. While much of the conference still revolved around seminars discussing gender identity and inclusivity, many of the presenters have managed to avoid any further controversy. For the Xbox Head of Gaming for Everyone & Sustainability, Katy Jo Wright, that was not the case.

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In an interview at the GDC with Games Industry, the Xbox DEI hall monitor would explain her thought process regarding controversial topics such as representation and inclusion, much akin to the ideological beliefs that consultation companies like Sweet Baby Inc have employed. While much of this interview was draped in broader concepts of “globalization” and “accessibility,” the Xbox exec did her best to avoid the topic of Sweet Baby Inc and “Gamergate 2,” as some have labeled it.

The “Gaming for Everyone” team began in 2015, with the stated goal being to bring gaming to everyone on the planet. “What we found in the early days of Gaming For Everyone, is that people – even internally – got inspired by the idea,” Katy Jo Wright said. “And we saw teams who went on and did things that brought it to life, like the Xbox Adaptive Controller. But we wanted to see it consistently across the organization. So my team went on this listening tour inside Xbox to understand what was going on and how people were making it real.

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“That is how we discovered people were inspired by Gaming For Everyone, but they didn’t know how to translate that into their own day-to-day. It was: ‘if I’m not a decision maker determining what hardware we build, how do I make it real?’ We were like ‘ah’. Because our messaging was around how it is up to each of us to make decisions, every day, to bring this intentionality to include. It was doing that learning that set us onto another journey to create what is now the Product Inclusion Framework.”

The Product Inclusion Framework, as the name implies, is a DEI toolkit that Xbox plans to put in the hands of developers across the world in order to insert “The Message” into their games. While Katy Jo Wright did her best to maintain the appearance that this was completely optional and was just something designed to reach a larger audience, history would advise us to take every word she said with a massive truckload of salt. The fact that Xbox Games Studios is a client of Sweet Baby Inc is also a reason to press X to doubt.

“We started doing this because, as developers, we want to get our games played by as many people as possible. It’s all about expanding reach,” The Xbox DEI boss continued. “When you talk to a developer… do you want to limit how many people play your game? No. That’s how we think about it. Then each developer gets to make the decision for themselves over who they want to expand their player reach to.

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“The framework is not a checklist,” the Xbox executive would eventually claim. “It’s not a mandate. Even internally, it’s not that at all. It’s just… a way for you to get your game into the hands of more players in a meaningful way.”

“It’s not about opening every door for every type of game, because that could make the game vanilla. It’s not about making every game for everyone, it’s about making gaming for everybody. It’s about how can we bring that level of intentionality, so you as a developer can make the right decision for your experience. We will connect you to a bunch of different resources, so that people are aware and can make an informed decision about their game.”

When asked about the uprising in the gaming industry that was sparked by Sweet Baby Inc. attempting to shut down a Steam Curator page, her response was as tepid as you would imagine it to be. “The more that we can talk about the good that gaming can bring, and the impact… and give that the energy and the spotlight,” she said. “Yes, there’s a threshold when there’s harassment. We need to be very aware of that in terms of safety and making our beliefs clear.”

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During the interview, she presented a survey that purports that 71% of gamers feel diversity in characters and stories is extremely important to them. “The clear majority of players value that,” the Xbox senior director claimed. “And we just know that to be true as humans.” The article doesn’t reveal what survey she pulled this statistic from. It very possibly could have been a survey conducted by a DEI obsessed consultation firm like Sweet Baby Inc.

The Xbox DEI enforcer would go on to personify everything that is wrong with the game media and the gaming industry as a whole. Ms. Wright used the example of a barely known Xbox Game Pass title called Venba to show that there is an attempt at reaching a global audience, “Even if people don’t play it,” she said. “Knowing it’s there makes them feel like they belong.” This is yet again an example of how out of touch corporate America is with the average gamer, who cares little about the ESG funding that is fueling this DEI push in gaming.

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The final thing the Xbox DEI director said in the interview is, without a doubt, the most foreboding. “If you don’t intentionally include, you will unintentionally exclude,” Katy Jo Wright stated. “That is how we are as human beings. There is no shame in that. If you want to include, you have to be intentional about that.”

This “intentional inclusion” has led to what is arguably a larger uprising than Gamergate was a decade ago. Ideologically possessed companies like Sweet Baby Inc, which has worked hand in hand with Xbox Game Studios, do not seek to simply reach a larger audience. Sweet Baby Inc and its DEI-driven ilk seek to exclude the majority of the gaming industry’s customer base and replace them with an imaginary group of people who don’t play games. Forced inclusion and diversity have actually created less of both.

As a great developer once said, “A game for everyone is a game for no one.” The more game studios that follow suit abandon the woke messaging and focus on creating great games, the more inclusive things will actually be. DEI initiatives do nothing but destroy any common ground gamers used to share and replace them with racial quotas and Marxist messaging. DEI is the modern-day religion, and the church is Corporate America.

What do you think of what Xbox is doing? Share your thoughts down below.

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