Derogatory portrayals of women are common in popular titles, but a popular Sony game offers a glimmer of hope.
The video game business has a long and troubled history of sexism and gender stereotypes. A series of scandals at multiple gaming companies provided a sad reminder that the industry needs to do much more to restore its culture and ultimately restore its reputation.
But the situation is not hopeless. As a Sony hit shows, there’s a big market for games that portray women as smart and resourceful actors rather than pawns, victims, and objects of male desire.
An incident at a conference about ten years ago has become the poster child for the cultural issues of the industry. “I love that you have a lot of very strong female characters,” one woman told an all-male panel of developers from Activision Blizzard Inc., creator of mega-hits World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. “However, I was wondering if we could have some that don’t look like they’ve stepped out of a Victoria’s Secret catalog.” A little applause was soon drowned out by a sea of booing. Instead of defending her, the developers ridiculed her suggestion.
Despite an outcry at the time, the industry continued to struggle with a hostile attitude toward women. After Microsoft Corp. hosted a party with scantily clad dancers on platforms five years ago, Xbox head Phil Spencer had to apologize. More recently, League of Legends creator Riot Games Inc. sued for gender discrimination while Ubisoft Entertainment and Activision Blizzard Inc. several executives have let go over allegations of widespread sexual harassment.
But in the midst of these painful episodes, there are also signs of progress. Especially the blockbuster release from Sony Group Corp. 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn shows that there’s a huge market for games that don’t denigrate women.
The protagonist of Zero Dawn is a female character who does not look like a supermodel. Set in a post-apocalyptic time far in the future, the character, named Aloy, fights robot dinosaurs and wants to stop a rogue artificial intelligence system from destroying life on Earth.
The game’s developers said they wanted to create a “credible and inspiring hero for everyone.” And it worked. Players loved the character and the game’s compelling story and production values. Horizon became one of Sony’s most popular games, selling over 10 million copies.
The sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, is poised to become one of the biggest releases of 2022 after launching in February. If successful, it should encourage other publishers to move beyond superficial female appearances and focus on better storytelling and game quality. The positive response to the title among female gamers on industry websites and social media suggests it may also help attract more female gamers to console games.
Characters like Aloy remain too rare among mainstream games. As a video game enthusiast, I find it uncomfortable to play leading titles like Tomb Raider, Genshin Impact, or Bayonetta, all of which feature female characters in skimpy outfits. But for now, gamers are stuck or watching sexist depictions of women or avoiding many of the gaming world’s top franchises. Of course, many best-selling video games don’t rely on cringing graphics, but familiar gender tropes of the damsel in distress and the use of overly sexualized characters are far too common.
An obvious path to reform would be to increase diversity among those who make games for developers with deep pockets. Earlier this month, Activision released a report showing that only about a quarter of its employees were women, a proportion comparable to that of industry peers. A previous study found that women are even more underrepresented in industry leadership roles. It’s hard to imagine that some of the worst game design decisions wouldn’t have been avoided if more women’s voices had been involved in the process. Recovering from its own scandal, Activision says it will do better within five years and hire significantly more women.
The treatment of women in video games, both behind the scenes and as characters in them, is nothing short of outrageous. Hopefully, the latest round of outcry, as well as the preview of Sony’s Horizon title, will spur publishers to change their culture. It’s been a long time since they did that.
Tae Kim is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist on technology. He previously covered technology for Barron’s, after a previous career as an equity analyst.
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