Abstract:
A recent research paper points out that DEI, or diversity, equity and inclusion content in games, may have hurt game sales and revenue in recent years. It is said that the more DEI elements in a game, its sales revenue may drop by nearly 10%. In more conservative countries such as China, this effect is even more pronounced.
Diversity and inclusion have become important issues in the gaming industry over the past few years. Well-known consulting firms such as Sweet Baby Inc. have also received widespread attention for helping studios promote DEI in large-scale games. However, a new study finds that, at least in regions like China, DEI content is having a negative impact on gaming.
As long as games can cater to local players, regions such as China can become extremely large markets, and "Black Myth: Wukong" and the recently released "Shadow Blade Zero" are examples. Meanwhile, Dragon Age: Shadowkeep was heavily criticized for going too far in terms of inclusivity. "Assassin's Creed: Shadow" also became a hot topic due to the addition of Yasuke.
Chinese economists Wang Haomiao and Zhang Bohui recently conducted a study analyzing how excessive focus on DEI will affect gaming, especially in more conservative countries. The study analyzed more than 9,000 games released on Steam between 2015 and 2024, and used the AI model DeepSeek R1 to give each game an SBI rating of 1 to 5.
Preliminary results show that for games with higher SBI ratings, sales dropped by 5.26% and revenue dropped by 7.69%. Research suggests that this is largely due to negative reactions from players, which subsequently affects game sales.
However, the author also specifically stated that this research is still ongoing, so the current results cannot be regarded as absolute conclusions. At the same time, there are indeed many people today who are opposed to the gaming industry’s increasing emphasis on DEI.
It is worth noting that the game industry seems to have begun to pay less attention to DEI recently, especially as game development costs continue to rise and the industry continues to face difficulties.
Large publishers have discovered that it's not easy to keep major studios like BioWare afloat. As a result, DEI is rapidly falling down the list of priorities for the largest game developers and publishers.
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