Multiple major game studios have spoken out on Twitter and in the media against the recent ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States overturning Roe v. Wade, a legal precedent that provided protection for abortion in America.
The video games industry is no stranger to controversy and certainly games developers and publishers have shown their hands in the political arena from time to time when it comes to the types of games that they produce. However, now more than ever this is a time that gaming companies are beginning to show more attention to speaking out for better or worse.
Many of these studios have already published comments back when the original draft of the decision was leaked in May.
This includes Bungie, publisher of the popular Destiny franchise, doubled down on its position admonishing the court on its decision stating that it regarded the decision as a “direct attack on human rights.”
“Last month, we stated without reservation that all of us deserve to choose our own path and access the healthcare we need,” the company wrote on its website. “The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade cuts off millions of Americans from that access and leaves open the possibility of even further restrictions on life-saving healthcare for all of us.”
The Paris-based AAA publisher Ubisoft condemned the decision on Twitter, citing its U.S. teams and calling upon “reproductive rights” as “human rights.” The game studio is known for its best-selling series Assassins Creed.
Insomniac Games, maker of Spyro and Ratchet & Clank, spoke out with a message that “reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy are human rights.”
The game developer ArenaNet, best known for the MMO Guild Wars 2, republished the original message it posted when the draft decision was leaked. The developer is well known for its advancement of stories in its game that push the representation of women and LGBTQ characters.
The gaming industry has not always been so adaptive, nor progressive, on issues dealing with women. Prominent examples include Gamergate, the incandescent backlash amid the gaming community against progressive political values presented in gaming, including the representation of women in games and the more recent controversies at Blizzard, the publisher of World of Warcraft, which is constantly entangled in a culture of rampant sexism and multiple lawsuits stemming from it.
Photo: Pixabay
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