How Sweet Baby Inc Resparked The GamerGate Debate

Only a few weeks ago, most people likely did not know who Sweet Baby Inc was. However, after a Steam post highlighted their work, they were quickly thrown into the spotlight. It is worth noting that it was not the post on Steam that threw them into this whirlwind. Instead, it was how the Sweet Baby Inc employees responded to the post that ultimately threw them into the mainstream. After the company went to Twitter and tried to launch a harassment campaign against the original Steam poster, people started to take notice. It was a strange way for a company to act that has nothing to hide.

The fact that they went to such extreme lengths to hide their involvement in games made people pay more attention. If they simply ignored the original post, I do not believe things would have reached this point. Since this thing blew up, you had your usual suspects running defense. Kotaku finally entered the conversation when they wrote an article claiming that Sweet Baby Inc does not do what people think. However, things got weirder after the senior editor at Kotaku tried to infiltrate the Discord group that was created by the original Steam poster.

The Kotaku writer went into the group and posted, “If anyone would like to chat about this discord and the steam page, let me know. Thanks.” She then followed up by saying, “Is there a reason why many of you didn’t have your names/pictures associated with your accounts on here?

Sweet Baby Inc Anonymous

Now, there is a very simple reason why people don’t do that. It is because of reporters like this. If you attach your name, people like this will try and ruin your life. They will track down where you work and call your boss. They will label you every terrible name they can possibly think of. It is a classic bully tactic that people like this use. Sadly you have to be anonymous in order to protect yourself. These journalists are already calling this a hate group.

Defenders of this company have been desperately trying to close this group down. There was an effort to report every single post made on the Steam group that highlights the projects Sweet Baby Inc is involved in. Over a thousand complaints were filed against the group, and it is clear that this was a coordinated attack. However, since then, the creator of the Steam group has responded by stating that Valve assisted them in clearing all issues.

The Sweet Baby Inc Detected Steam group creator posted on Twitter, “It is with great pride that I say, based Valve. Thank you, Valve Software, for respecting your player’s freedom of choice, and also, thank you, Lord Gabe, for building such an amazing platform for us.”

Sweet Baby Inc Is Exactly What You Thought

It will come as no surprise when I tell you that Sweet Baby Inc. is exactly what you thought they were. I highlighted in previous videos the strategy that companies like this use in order to bully companies into working with them. To simplify it, they will call up your studio and inform you that the games you work on are problematic. They will then highlight how bad it will get for you if you do not make changes to your game and more closely align with their agenda.

After they have threatened you, they will sell you the solution. That means you hire their company, pay them millions, and they will diversify your game for you. The CEO of Sweet Baby Inc makes no secret of this strategy. In fact, she proudly explains how she forces and bullies bosses at game studios to censor and change games. She is quoted as saying, “Terrify them into giving you what you want”

Now, you would think that big companies won’t fall for these tricks, but they do. The truth is that Sweet Baby Inc. has no terror to bully you with. They will make a few tweets and ask their journalist friends at irrelevant publications to write articles about how bad the game is. This will have no impact as these people do not play video games anyway. Studios who listen to this type of garbage end up losing millions. Game developers have not yet figured out that you can just ignore these people.

The Gamergate Conclusion

In a lot of ways, people have started to compare this situation to Gamergate. On the one hand, there is a group trying to diversify games, and on the other hand, there is a group trying to resist it. However, this is not an honest way of framing things. Most people against these changes are not against diversity. I hope that people will agree that simply having diverse or gay characters in a video game does not make it woke. Politics in video games have also existed forever. In fact, there are many games with strong social commentary, and there is no issue with that.

However, there is this strong insistence that you have to agree with everything that makes people upset. Having a woman lead is not an issue. However, remaking a game and changing the sex of the character is what people do not like. When you bring this up, people call you sexist, and then all hell breaks loose. Companies like Sweet Baby Inc. do not but cause further division. They are not pushing for diversity and inclusion; they are forcing their own personal viewpoints off on beloved games.

They have the right to believe what they believe. In fact, they can create all the games they want and insert all those beliefs into them. Unfortunately, they know if they do this, no one will play their games, so they bully big studios instead. Hopefully developers will wake up soon.