GamerGate2 - SweetBaby Boogaloo shows that
GamerGate never truly died. Instead the leopard simply changed its spots from an issue involving and revolving around a few infamous
individuals, to one now involving businesses, organisations and corporations, and how the same brand of
divisive toxic politics and 'activism' can be used to leverage compliance in support of a particular 'diverse, inclusive and equitable' (DIE) outlook that, as gamers see it, pollutes established Intellectual Properties and 'cannon' stories. The question has always been though, how exactly do these types of organisations and business find favour with game development studios and publishers, especially when they often have little or no writing, creative or other design experience?
They, game studios/developers/publishers etc., are basically gambling, weighing/running the risk of undermining an IP or brand for sake ESG/DIE to get "cheap money", against the projected big payoff at the end through sales.
Former game executive and develop at Blizzard Mark Kern
@Grummz: "The way games are funded you don't use your own money. Even EA, it's games are hugely expensive to make they're they're upwards of you know 250 sometimes 600 million dollars it's for certain live games it's incredibly how expensive they are and to do that uh your CFO is your best friend.
"You're counting on your CFO to get you tax breaks to get you in to put studios in regions which are financially favorable and you will borrow the cheap money you will get a cheap money to do it. Even EA does this. I worked with EA; we were putting together a deal where they were taking bailout money from the banks in the last financial crisis that we had, and they were applying that cheap money towards games same thing with Covid money. They're applying that cheap money towards games, and what has been the cheapest money while interest rates were still low, you know a couple of years ago it was ESG financing, and so they're going to take this money."
"Because the returns on investment have been so poor on Wall Street for ESG funds, that source of Revenue is drying it up. This Woke machine cannot continue in the way that it is now for AAA gaming, and I think unfortunately, it's so entrenched that you're not going to see - you're not going to see much of an ability to course correct because the studios are - they're just gonna shut down." [source]
Mark Kern explains how ESG money comes with strings attached inside corporations and is used to make companies partner with DEI consulting companies like Sweet Baby Inc:
"Everyone needs to realize is that it's not that these Studios are funding the games out of their own pocket; that would be very expensive for them. Cash is king. They will preferably go out and get money from other sources if it's cheap enough to help spread the risk of these massive titles, and so you have a lot of quid pro quo happening, and I can tell you that developers have been approaching me and giving me some inside baseball on what's been happening, and there are deals funding deals out there for studios - and I can't get too specific; I don't want to out sources - that have certain strings attached like a company will suddenly sign with a developer and now that developer needs to hire a DEI director and needs to go out and hire consultancy firms to gender balance."
"Their staff quite specifically go out and hire companies like SBI to consult on their writing and do sensitivity reading and changes for that, and what does, all this does, it boosts their ESG score. It allows them access that funding so ESG is not going away entirely."
"It's [ESG] become an evil brand. People are waking up to this... You have you have a rebranding going on right now. They're not calling it ESG, but it's still out there." [source]
