Leaders in the video game industry spent the better part of the last decade marketing radical gender ideology in a hobby predominantly practiced by children and teenagers. No gamer could escape transgender symbolism or out-of-place pride flags sprawled across his screen.
In recent months, however, gamers have had enough of the political propaganda. They’ve now adopted a so-called “non-buynary” movement, refusing to purchase games saturated in identity politics. Now, an unprecedented number of games are seeing poor sales and game studios are folding. The movement appears to be working.
The video game industry is finally experiencing its Bud Light moment.
Americans boycotted Bud Light in 2023 after the company hired transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney as a spokesperson. The boycott is still affecting the brand with Bud Light falling to third place in beer sales last summer. Throughout the past year, many gamers speculated that the industry would have a reckoning similar to Bud Light when a majority of gamers put their foot down.
In what became one of the largest flops in the history of gaming, Sony reportedly spent $400 million to develop the shooting game “Concord.” Sony was banking on the new game to become a key new franchise, propelling the PlayStation brand into the future. Rather than focus on fun gameplay, “Concord” forced preferred pronouns and “DEI character designs” onto players. The new “DEI character designs” refer to modern game studios creating female characters who look masculine or overweight while also having LGBTQ identities.
After Sony announced “Concord,” comments from the game’s lead character designer were unearthed where he stated that “whites must acknowledge their privileged position, and then actively work for equality.” He added that “complicity allows systemic racism to persist.” In another comment, he stated that the “entire penal/judicial system is white supremacy.” His ideology obviously leaked into the game.
“Concord” officially launched in August 2024 to a negative reception. The game failed to reach even 700 concurrent players online, becoming a massive disaster. Sony shut down the servers after two weeks and refunded players who bought the game. Then, in October, Sony announced the closure of “Concord’s” development company, Firewalk Studios.
Gamers simply refused to give their money to a studio that made a blatantly woke game. That’s not the only noteworthy example from 2024.
“Dragon Age” is a massive game franchise with millions of fans who waited a decade for another sequel. BioWare, however, failed to give fans what they wanted with the release of “Dragon Age: The Veilguard” in October. Much like “Concord,” the new “Dragon Age” game forced players into accepting radical gender ideology.
One of the main characters in “Dragon Age: The Veilguard” identifies as “non-binary” and it becomes a recurring plot point of the game. In one scene, a character punishes herself with pushups for misgendering the “non-binary” character. Gamers saw right through it and never truly bought into the game. The new “Dragon Age” only had 1.5 million players within its first two months, 50% below expectations. The first game in the series sold 3.2 million copies in the same timeframe, with the second selling two million copies. BioWare then fired all staff on the game’s writing team in January.
Another major release that floundered for similar reasons is “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.” Rocksteady Studios released the game in February 2024. “Suicide Squad” served as a sequel to the popular “Batman: Arkham” games but failed to live up to the hype.
The game has villain Harley Quinn lecture Batman for his brand of justice before outright killing the popular masked vigilante. Rocksteady Studios also used the game to gender swap Mr. Freeze into a character named “Mrs. Freeze” who is a lesbian. In the game, Mrs. Freeze has an outfit that includes the pride flag draped across her shoulder.
Not many gamers were impressed with “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s” direction. Forbes reported that “while we do not know sales figures, they appear dismal, and reports are that they were lower than even the worst-case scenario expectations for release.” Rocksteady Studios had multiple rounds of layoffs last year after the game’s launch.
Game studios spent too many years preaching inclusivity and gender ideology to gamers and eventually lost the good will they earned in prior decades. People play games to briefly escape their problems in the real world – not to be forced into accepting a sinister ideology. The situation is even worse when these games are marketed to vulnerable children who are easily influenced.
For the video game industry to recover from its self-inflicted slump, studios must embrace the vision of pure enjoyable escapism of years past. Until that day arrives, gamers will undoubtedly continue to identify as “non-buynary.”
* * *
Casey Ryan is a writer and investigative reporter at Parents Defending Education.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Leaders in the video game industry spent the better part of the last decade marketing radical gender ideology in a hobby predominantly practiced by children and teenagers. No gamer could escape transgender symbolism or out-of-place pride flags sprawled across his screen.
In recent months, however, gamers have had enough of the political propaganda. They’ve now adopted a so-called “non-buynary” movement, refusing to purchase games saturated in identity politics. Now, an unprecedented number of games are seeing poor sales and game studios are folding. The movement appears to be working.
The video game industry is finally experiencing its Bud Light moment.
Americans boycotted Bud Light in 2023 after the company hired transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney as a spokesperson. The boycott is still affecting the brand with Bud Light falling to third place in beer sales last summer. Throughout the past year, many gamers speculated that the industry would have a reckoning similar to Bud Light when a majority of gamers put their foot down.
In what became one of the largest flops in the history of gaming, Sony reportedly spent $400 million to develop the shooting game “Concord.” Sony was banking on the new game to become a key new franchise, propelling the PlayStation brand into the future. Rather than focus on fun gameplay, “Concord” forced preferred pronouns and “DEI character designs” onto players. The new “DEI character designs” refer to modern game studios creating female characters who look masculine or overweight while also having LGBTQ identities.
After Sony announced “Concord,” comments from the game’s lead character designer were unearthed where he stated that “whites must acknowledge their privileged position, and then actively work for equality.” He added that “complicity allows systemic racism to persist.” In another comment, he stated that the “entire penal/judicial system is white supremacy.” His ideology obviously leaked into the game.
“Concord” officially launched in August 2024 to a negative reception. The game failed to reach even 700 concurrent players online, becoming a massive disaster. Sony shut down the servers after two weeks and refunded players who bought the game. Then, in October, Sony announced the closure of “Concord’s” development company, Firewalk Studios.
Gamers simply refused to give their money to a studio that made a blatantly woke game. That’s not the only noteworthy example from 2024.
“Dragon Age” is a massive game franchise with millions of fans who waited a decade for another sequel. BioWare, however, failed to give fans what they wanted with the release of “Dragon Age: The Veilguard” in October. Much like “Concord,” the new “Dragon Age” game forced players into accepting radical gender ideology.
One of the main characters in “Dragon Age: The Veilguard” identifies as “non-binary” and it becomes a recurring plot point of the game. In one scene, a character punishes herself with pushups for misgendering the “non-binary” character. Gamers saw right through it and never truly bought into the game. The new “Dragon Age” only had 1.5 million players within its first two months, 50% below expectations. The first game in the series sold 3.2 million copies in the same timeframe, with the second selling two million copies. BioWare then fired all staff on the game’s writing team in January.
Another major release that floundered for similar reasons is “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.” Rocksteady Studios released the game in February 2024. “Suicide Squad” served as a sequel to the popular “Batman: Arkham” games but failed to live up to the hype.
The game has villain Harley Quinn lecture Batman for his brand of justice before outright killing the popular masked vigilante. Rocksteady Studios also used the game to gender swap Mr. Freeze into a character named “Mrs. Freeze” who is a lesbian. In the game, Mrs. Freeze has an outfit that includes the pride flag draped across her shoulder.
Not many gamers were impressed with “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s” direction. Forbes reported that “while we do not know sales figures, they appear dismal, and reports are that they were lower than even the worst-case scenario expectations for release.” Rocksteady Studios had multiple rounds of layoffs last year after the game’s launch.
Game studios spent too many years preaching inclusivity and gender ideology to gamers and eventually lost the good will they earned in prior decades. People play games to briefly escape their problems in the real world – not to be forced into accepting a sinister ideology. The situation is even worse when these games are marketed to vulnerable children who are easily influenced.
For the video game industry to recover from its self-inflicted slump, studios must embrace the vision of pure enjoyable escapism of years past. Until that day arrives, gamers will undoubtedly continue to identify as “non-buynary.”
* * *
Casey Ryan is a writer and investigative reporter at Parents Defending Education.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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