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[Sub_Level]

If you want some additional diversity in your life, you could consider going over to Sucker Punch and asking them, if they have an early GoT build to let you play.

Thats one of the examples he gave in the OP, yeah.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

So all dev's will look like this:

How'd you get that picture of me?

 

[DanielsM]

Thats one of the examples he gave in the OP, yeah.

There is nothing wrong with different games, a company can actually make a racist or sexists game even. A company can't (or technically precluded from) be sexists and racists in their employment and hiring practices (at least in the U.S., generally speaking), which is what he is implying.

The way I read his comment/s, the developers should be white males.

 

[Texas Pride]

Damn, both Layden and Spencer are doubling down.

Yeah I have no interest in them chasing the SJW fad. Ask EA & Dice how well their pandering worked. Just make things we want to buy without injecting politics into the gaming medium. I'm not interested in forced diversity. Hire the best people period.

 

[Riven326]

So its more important to have a diverse team than it is to have the best talent and devs?

Yep. And it's making me want to play older games because they're fucking better than the trash that's being produced today by these talentless diversity hires.

 

[MacReady13]

Why are these morons so insistent on making diversity the big play here? How about focusing on getting the best possible people you can in their field instead of going after diversity to try please some extremely minor portion of your audience...

 

[Riven326]

Why are these morons so insistent on making diversity the big play here? How about focusing on getting the best possible people you can in their field instead of going after diversity to try please some extremely minor portion of your audience...

I know it sounds simple and it's probably not a very satisfying answer but... marketing. The diversity and inclusion buzzwords sound better than we hire based on merit and qualifications.

 

[Mista]

Do you have studios in Africa Layden? No? Yeah you can talk all this shit that came out of your mouth and put it back in your arse

I hate contradicting statements, they just piss me off!

 

[SkinnerSw33t]

Will somebody please think of the African software developers? PLEASE!

Without, we have no diversity. Do you hear me? NO DIVERSITY!

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Next gen fan boys:

"Nuh-uh, sony is way more woke than Microsoft."

"As if! Microsoft have two studios formed entirely of attack helicopters and otherkin"

If I had the skill I would change this into a meme with a third guy asking about tflops and ram...

 

[Coolio McAwesome]

About 50 years ago, a great man had a dream in which people would not be judged by the color of their skin, but on the content of their character. It seems like that dream is becoming less and less plausible with each passing day.

 

[Ellery]

I don't care what people look like that make games.
I don't care where they are from or what they have experienced in their lifes.
I would never buy a game because the developers look like X and I would also never not buy a game because they look like Y.

As a gamer and a consumer I care about the final product and I am not going to buy games to support quotas or forced diversity.
Hire hard working, talented people no matter what they look like or where they come from and make games that are worthy of my money.

 

[CyberPanda]

What the fuck is happening to this world?

 

[mcjmetroid]

About 50 years ago, a great man had a dream in which people would not be judged by the color of their skin, but on the content of their character. It seems like that dream is becoming less and less plausible with each passing day.

Yes! How can people not see this that this shit is going backwards. It's like parading black people up and down the street like circus animals at this point.

 

[MB1]

I like how everyone skipped over this-

"As an example, he pointed to Sucker Punch, developer of the Sly Cooper and Infamous series of games. When the studio sat down to create a game that would take advantage of the PlayStation 4 Pro hardware, Layden said the natural option was to build a new Infamous game. But the studio instead suggested Ghost of Tsushima, a samurai action game. Layden was particularly impressed that the Seattle-area studio successfully pitched a historical project set in Japan to Japanese executives at a Japanese parent company. "

Infamous is a pretty good game but I see more enthusiasm for Ghost of Tsushima. Especially in light of the success of Nioh, Sekiro, Tenchu etc.

 

[Riven326]

What the fuck is happening to this world?

Didn't you see the movie? Thanos found the infinity stones.

 

[Torrent of Pork]

I don't give two shits how you hire your staff, if I don't like the game you're making I'm not spending my money.

 

[sublimit]

Jesus Christ. I think it's time someone tell these pure-hearted execs (who are fighting so hard for our well being and everything that is good and fair) that it's ok if sometimes they ignore what their PR people tell them to say.

 

[wordslaughter]

Can't make a good game without a team comprised by a racial quota system.

I hope they don't just use race either. They should strongly consider where members of their team put their penises ( also consider having as few "male penises" as possible ) and if they can articulate precisely where along the gender spectrum they fall. And how about your texture artists? Are they oppressed? Could they be MORE oppressed? This is important stuff. Can't make great games without building your team around it.

 

[GamesAreFun]

I don't care what people look like that make games.
I don't care where they are from or what they have experienced in their lifes.
I would never buy a game because the developers look like X and I would also never not buy a game because they look like Y.

As a gamer and a consumer I care about the final product and I am not going to buy games to support quotas or forced diversity.
Hire hard working, talented people no matter what they look like or where they come from and make games that are worthy of my money.

He didn't mention quotas or forced diversity, whether it's implied is open to one's interpretation. I agree with him that different backgrounds of staff might provide different creative input, though even people who appear superficially similar in class/wealth/education/etc can have wildly different personalities.

 

[zeorhymer]

What a great PR and virtue signalling article! They checked all the right boxes and said the right words too.....

Delete the words diversity and replace all gender nouns as person and the article just boils down to: a great team makes great games. But writing that makes it sound so boring.

 

[Dacon]

"it's important our development teams look like our fans"

Urgh, no it fucking isnt. The only thing that matters is if they can do their jobs and do them well.

Why the fuck does anyone care what they look like or what they happen to be? This shit is so meaningless and superficial.

 

[DanielsM]

He didn't mention quotas or forced diversity, whether it's implied is open to one's interpretation.

He said the developers should look like the fans, which is not hard to understand. (why?) What he is implying is racists/sexists, and in the future, someone from the studios could use those statements against the company.

 

[Chozofication_]

I'm bowing out next gen sony and ms good luck with this crazy new world

 

[Bonfires Down]

Yeah, I somewhat agree. If they want to create games that appeal to both men and women and to other cultures like the chinese, it makes sense to have some of these people on the dev team.

 

[McRazzle]

Is it a coincidence , that all of this began after Kaz left?

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Didn't you see the movie?

Nah.. it was all foretold in Idiocracy...

 

[Riven326]

He didn't mention quotas or forced diversity, whether it's implied is open to one's interpretation. I agree with him that different backgrounds of staff might provide different creative input, though even people who appear superficially similar in class/wealth/education/etc can have wildly different personalities.

It could be bad creative input. Like if you uplift a homeless guy and put him on the team, you might end up with more fast food shops in your open world game. Or more liquor stores depending on the bum.

 

[SonOfSheba]

Sounds good to me!

 

[DanielsM]

Yeah, I somewhat agree. If they want to create games that appeal to both men and women and to other cultures like the chinese, it makes sense to have some of these people on the dev team.

Every racist that has existed has said its makes sense.

 

[GamesAreFun]

Yeah, I somewhat agree. If they want to create games that appeal to both men and women and to other cultures like the chinese, it makes sense to have some of these people on the dev team.

To be fair, that doesn't always hold true. Some games made by a homogeneous team of Japanese developers are much more popular in the West than their home country.

 

[SkinnerSw33t]

It could be bad creative input. Like if you uplift a homeless guy and put him on the team, you might end up with more fast food shops in your open world game. Or more liquor stores depending on the bum.

Hah. Another alt account. Used to be much more fun to pick out.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

As we broaden the tent for our games and we welcome those from every part of the world and every background, it's important our development teams look like our fans,"

Pretty sure most of Sony's US dev teams are white people. Mostly guys with a small number of women.

Who knew Sony gamers were all white.

 

[Joshmyersbv]

If the people are qualified to do the job or considered the best at their position then I have no problem with it. But, if your trying to make a race/gender quota just to make sjw happy then enjoy shitting sales and Twitter/ResetEra back pats because that's all your going to get. If you don't hire the best for the job your just going to fuck yourself.

 

[joe_zazen]

If the people are qualified to do the job or considered the best at their position then I have no problem with it. But, if your trying to make a race/gender quota just to make sjw happy then enjoy shitting sales and Twitter/ResetEra back pats because that's all your going to get. If you don't hire the best for the job your just going to fuck yourself.

Attracting high quality, educated employees in America today, of any color that are under 40, requires a progressive workplace. Management, otoh, are as sociopathic as ever, but they need to act the part of nice guy. So this kind of stuff is important for quality.

However, If the push for diversity actually mattered tho, they’d be investing in other countries and cultures that weren't part of Anglo American global domination axis—not simply looking at the skin colour and orientation of middle class Americans.

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Hiw many third world AAA studios does sony own/fund? Any in Africa? No? Ok then.

Sony used to fund some Chinese (PS1 JRPG released in China and Japan), Korean (Mystic Night, PS2) and Indian (Desi Adda: Games of India for PS2/PSP, and Hanuman for PS2 which went through massive development hell and released nine years later, in 2009). They largely dropped that like a bad habit, just like they hung smaller Japanese developers for their PS1 to dry once they didn't need them anymore (1998 Sony policy change regarding third party publishing support in Japan, which almost cost the world IntiCreates and killed a spiritual successor for Umihara Kawase) and how they dropped indies after the PS4 launch came and went.

Ubisoft and Squaresoft are doing quite well on that front, even though the former had to shut down their Casablanca branch because of internal power struggles and stagnant leadership (though not before poaching the best employees for other Western branches). Squaresoft has a Thai branch I think. Namco Bandai is investing there quite heavily as well (the Metroid Prime 4 remake was initially by their Singapore branch supposedly, which is as good an investment in those regions as it can get).

Yet Sony sticks out like a sore thumb. This statement is really weird too.

But the studio instead suggested Ghost of Tsushima, a samurai action game. Layden was particularly impressed that the Seattle-area studio successfully pitched a historical project set in Japan to Japanese executives at a Japanese parent company.
"We're very proud of the fact that this was a 100% American development team researching and honoring another culture, and its history and its beauty," he said.

This is a most strange statement. We know by now that Sony is an US-centric company since a good while ago. Its Japanese branch, developers and franchises (most kid friendly, so this has nothing on cultural differences) have been getting sidelined since years ago. So the American team is anything but the underdogs against adversity here.

This executive is shilling for the opinion that diverse (as in, novel, unique, varied) storytelling *depends* on the diversity of the employees who are making the game. Otherwise, their genetic lottery results would be a non factor, and arguing either way for their racial purity or the need of meeting an exact numerical ratio of racial quotas would be nonsensical.

Yet the example of Ghost of Tsushima runs directly counter to that.
If the team is 100% American, wouldn't that make it horrible cultural appropriation, according to social justice standards about who's allowed to write about what culture? Either this executive is struggling to get the virtue signaling right, or he's implying Japanese studios are too racially uniform and need that "diverse" injection of Western cultures, a cultural melting pot the Japanese are left out of (because the "100% American") ? Who knows. At any rate the game got actually attacked because of the flute guy (actually a world master class talent for that particular Japanese instrument) because of "cultural appropriation", so games like Ghost of Tsushima *are* indeed problematic to make according to the same audience they try wooing with this virtue signaling.

If your teams all look the same and act the same, if they all share the same history and the same point of view, your products will not evolve and will eventually become lackluster and unimaginative. Sameness is the death of innovation and creativity."

Is that another attack on Japanese developers? Besides the very sinister implications behind judging individuals worth based on how they were born, you know, the reason why racism is so hideous and anti-human. I do suspect that "the same point of view" isn't that much of a problem for Sony, and that this executive won't last much if he keeps slipping up like that.

 

[Riven326]

Hah. Another alt account. Used to be much more fun to pick out.

I don't follow.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

The way I read his comment/s, the developers should be white males.

There is most certainly too much of that, and it doesn't reflect well on us.

But me, I want Japanese developers... and whatever mix they have at Santa Monica/Naughty Dog!

Now what I wonder is the practicality of the idea behind "it's important our development teams look like our fans".
- Do they tacitly admit they were discriminating against certain groups until now (based on ethnicity, gender, orientation, etc.)?
- Once you say you want to proactively represent the demographics of your audience, what do you measure? do you apply it on a per-game basis? if a game is deemed "gay" (whatever it could mean) do you forbid non-straight people from working on it? What is your star programmer is Asian for some reason, but he's working on a Barbie game what will never be distributed in Asian rich areas? or let's say you have a 200 people studio in a state/city where there has been little immigration (or they mostly work in other fields), do you move the studio - in case their games don't "represent" the target demographics perfectly? Do you have to ask your employees about their sex lives (you know, if you must have a quota of gay/queer/straight that align with the audience you must measure it)? How is my orientation my employer's business? What if I lie about it to fit in a quota group, who will check?

This all makes no sense as a company policy - I mean, I don't think it does what they claim they want to achieve. The way I see it parity among groups of humans should not be a direct target, nor should it be incentivised as it brings distortions that could be worse after a while (Who do you think will get the promotions)... No it may be a side effect of trying to avoid judging applicants on this kind of factors, letting people in as they are (to a certain degree, some people just expect too much).

Many claim it has not worked in the last 40 years or so, but where I live if you go to any tech company's office you'll see a sample of the United Nations - the demographic that is the poorest are "french white canadians" the majority here. Do what you will of it.

 

[juliotendo]

Source of the interview.

"We empower our development studios to constantly push the boundaries of gaming and give them opportunities to experiment and explore," Layden said. "We encourage them to take risks. We enable a culture that learns from mistakes and failures. As leaders, we encourage developers to act fearlessly and share new ideas. We try to be approachable, available, and responsive. "​

​

As an example, he pointed to Sucker Punch, developer of the Sly Cooper and Infamous series of games. When the studio sat down to create a game that would take advantage of the PlayStation 4 Pro hardware, Layden said the natural option was to build a new Infamous game. But the studio instead suggested Ghost of Tsushima, a samurai action game. Layden was particularly impressed that the Seattle-area studio successfully pitched a historical project set in Japan to Japanese executives at a Japanese parent company.​

​

"We're very proud of the fact that this was a 100% American development team researching and honoring another culture, and its history and its beauty," he said.​

Of course, there's more to fostering creativity than just telling people to take risks. Development teams can be set up in such a way that lends itself to creativity, from the physical space where they work to the composition of the team itself.​

​

"As we broaden the tent for our games and we welcome those from every part of the world and every background, it's important our development teams look like our fans," Layden said. "It's important that we have a wide range of voices if we are to exceed the expectations of our audience​

​

"People with different backgrounds bring new perspectives. They help ignite the creative spark by thinking differently. If your teams all look the same and act the same, if they all share the same history and the same point of view, your products will not evolve and will eventually become lackluster and unimaginative. Sameness is the death of innovation and creativity."​

​

He also pointed to Dreams developer Media Molecule as an example of that mindset proven out.​

​

"The Media Molecule team is now roughly one-third female, but this has required a conscious effort and greater outreach, from being more experimental with recruitment and welcoming more interns and even young school groups," Layden said, noting that the studio partnered with Girls Make Games to have a Dreams game development workshop recently.​

​

---

Classic corporate PR nonsense.

Diversity on gender or race doesn’t matter. Diversity of Talent and knowledge does. Talented developers do. Whether 1/3 female or 2/3 or half I don’t care as long as the developers are talented and make good games.

I don’t play video games thinking to myself “hmm I sure hope the development team behind this fantastic game I am playing is 50 percent female and 10 percent native Indian Alaskan, and 2.5 percent gender queer”

Nobody thinks about this except crazies and loonies. Good talent is good talent whether it is a woman or man or an alien from some far away planet. If people have the talent, they will have the job.

Forced diversity for diversity sake is moronic and actually detrimental.

The whole concept to create a society that is across the board egalitarian is typical communist ideology and destined to fail because you are promoting external factors (race, gender) over internal factors (intelligence, grit) which are the ones that matter regardless of person skin color or sex.

This is why all communist societies and far left socialist regimes always fail. They propagate mediocrity for the sake of checking boxes to please the masses.

Good talent is good talent whether man or woman gay or straight white or black.

 

[Cleyra]

So at this point Nintendo is the only console maker that haven't went full woke?

 

[CyberPanda]

So at this point Nintendo is the only console maker that haven't went full woke?

Ya Nintendo generally stays out of politics of any kind.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Everyone here bitching.
And jerking themselves and others.

does everything tigger all of you? How annoying can you all be. That being said nothing of value was said about PS5 so EH.

 

[Cleyra]

Ya Nintendo generally stays out of politics of any kind.

Good on them then. I guess still having the japanese HQ calling the shots on everything is part of the reason.

 

[Petrae]

Video Games: The Battle For The Moral High Ground

It’s all so fucking tiresome— basically the equivalent of donating to charity only on the condition that you do so accompanied by a loud proclamation that everyone must hear about how great a person you are before the check clears.

Be sure to grow some chests to pin those medals of virtue on, since that’s apparently what you’re striving for. The approval of the oppressed means everything.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Because of course if people look alike, they'll also think alike. The logic is strong in this one. This sounds like a direct adaption of early Nazi pseudo-science.

 

[Virex]

Shawn Layden's virtue signalling > Phil Spencer's virtue signalling

It like Microsoft and Sony aren't just fighting each other for market share. They're also in a virtue signalling war.

 

[HeresJohnny]

What a bunch of bullshit. Just hire the best talent to make the best game. Who cares what's between their legs or what skin color they have?

 

[Kenpachii]

What a bunch of bullshit. Just hire the best talent to make the best game. Who cares what's between their legs or what skin color they have?

Real racists and sexists aka this company.

 

[Texas Pride]

Everyone here bitching.
And jerking themselves and others.

does everything tigger all of you? How annoying can you all be. That being said nothing of value was said about PS5 so EH.

Nobody asked you or made you post in the fucking thread. You bitch about bitching while you BITCH....So you're not only a hypocrite but you're annoying as well. Congratulations on coming full circle asshole.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Diverse Team = Open World games that either have Zombies or Robots.

Middle Aged men are their fans apparently. Do Sony know they have other demographics?