2024 Was The Year That Went Down Under Sports

Games with Black leads and characters were derided as forced. Female celebrities who were perceived as unattractive or masculine were sick”DEI chin.” Dragon Age: The Veilguardhas been criticized by right-wing trolls for its options, which allow players to create characters with advanced surgical scars or play with a non-binary partner. After the reviews were released, conspiracy theorists used dubs or other languages ​​as evidence that studio BioWare was instructing reviewers on how to talk about their games.

Even titles that haven’t been released yet have been bombarded. Compulsive Games’ South of Midnightabout a young black woman in the Deep South, drew outrage from anti-DEI groups on platforms like X, where she had been. photoshopped heroine in order to make her less “disgusting” and to introduce a conspiracy theory about Sweet Baby’s influence on the development of the game.

But the pressure to remain apolitical—the result of a desire to learn more about the entertainment that is tied to the art of narrative and fantasy worlds offered to the players who inhabit them—didn’t just come from a vocal minority. Following the release of Dark Legend: Wukongothers were he was given instructions avoid talking about Covid-19 or “feminism.” The instructions had the opposite effect, encouraging the athletes to lead with words that were banned: pushing against the standards that should evaluate the players.

Looking ahead 2025, Ball says he feels a lot of doubt often, but “it’s not a guess, not a prediction.” If there’s one consensus, he says, it’s that there is “a lot more borrowing going on than most people believe. Bottom line, it pays almost nothing, especially for indies. “

As 2024 draws to a close, these companies are operating—from abroad—with a business-as-usual mindset. In early December, developers gathered in Los Angeles to celebrate at The Game Awards. On stage, host Geoff Keighley spoke briefly, amidst game announcements, compliments, and Snoop Dogg’s performance.

“The sad thing is that in the last few years the sports industry has faced unprecedented challenges in any industry,” Keighley said. “This affects the sport we live in and, more importantly, the people who make the sport we love. We can argue and disagree with the reasons, and honestly as a show we struggle with how to address these topics in a positive way. “

Keighley used the session to bring home the TGA’s first “game changer” award, a nod to someone who has made a huge impact on the industry. Then the show went on, announcing the main topics about the big projects like The Witcher 4 and the next chapter from The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog.

At the center of all this is the interest of AI. There is still little information on how much AI will continue to grow and how future games will use it, but it is rising anxiety since the workers in the position are laid off. No one knows when, or if, the industry will return with stable jobs and compensation. Yes, there will be games to play. It’s hard to say how many people will be able to make them.