How A Mind Virus Rotted Away Sony's Studio Acquisition From The Inside Out...
In the midst of the colossal failure of liveservice hero-shooter "Concord", I've been in communication with someone who'd like to remain anonymous. Someone with some seriously wild inside knowledge Firewalk Studios... and they've courageously stepped forward as a whistleblower to reveal the reality of a toxic, ideologically-driven culture that has insidiously infected and ultimately wrecking Sony's once-promising studio.
This whistleblower, fed up with the industry's downward spiral, sheds a bright light on the disturbing world within Firewalk Studios...
The Progressive Takeover
Firewalk Studios, originally part of Probably Monsters, was acquired by Sony after working with them on several promising projects. The studio, which once prided itself on innovation and "inclusivity", has since taken a sharp turn towards extreme progressive ideologies. Shocking, I know...
This person with inside knowledge has revealed that while the studio publicly touts itself as "people-focused," this is nothing more than hollow rhetoric. In reality, any employee that so much as attempts to say or convey anything that could be construed as 'expressing a right-leaning opinion', is swiftly axed or blacklisted by HR.
While this isn't necessarily a surprise, it reconfirms much of what many of us were already thinking about how this mind virus ruins a company.
DEI: A Mask for Exclusion
The studio has mandated the use of pronouns, and embedded Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) into every facet of its company culture. According to the insight given to me, HR has openly voiced a desire to reduce the number of "straight white men" in the studio, without fear of repercussions... and created special Slack channels for 'women only', and other 'minority groups only' - making an even more divisive work environment, fostering exclusion rather than inclusion.
Ironic.
In theory, the one thing these 'types' of people seem so opposed to, is exactly what ends up consuming them.
Toxic Character Development Team
One glaring example of this cultural shift is the character development team. A prominent team member, known as @Wertle on Twitter, recently came out as identifying as non-binary and required coworkers to call her "Professor," despite not having done anything in life to earn or accomplish this title.
Wertle's influence has created a hostile work environment where dissenting opinions were not to be tolerated. She is known throughout the studio for her anti-gun stance, extreme political views, and advocating for the firing of unvaccinated employees. Let's remember that she is a developer of a squad-based hero shooter called Concord. A game that requires guns... and she opposes them. Reminds me of that weird Halo dev, Sensing a pattern?
...But I digress.
The entire character team at Firewalk Studios is reportedly 100% progressive and extremely tight-knit, ensuring that only those who align with their ideology are hired to join them.
According to the source, concept artist @ImagineAmanda exemplifies exactly the type of employee who passes the rigorous ideological screening process to ensure the same groupthink is added to the pile of employees.
Instead of taking feedback and adjusting to gamers, she seems to have taken the stance of 'Grummz bad' and 'political hate groups are the problem'... Ironically, when the source informed me of Amanda (full details here), I was already pre-blocked without ever hearing of her before. They don't want a conversation. They want an echo chamber.
The Cult of Wokeness
You knew where this was going - The insider describes the environment at Firewalk Studios as a 'cult' mentality, where employees are afraid to speak out against poor design choices for fear of being blacklisted. Nepotism runs rampant, and those in power prioritize ideological purity over creative excellence or divergence.
This has led to a studio culture that despises YOU, the average gamer - and is far more focused on pushing political agendas and ideologies than creating engaging and entertaining games.
...and here we thought the robot pronoun thing was bad. It didn't even scratch the surface.
A Toxic Echo Chamber
The whistleblower added that the culture at Firewalk Studios is marked by a complete lack of humility and an incredibly fierce echo chamber. Personally, I saw the beginnings of this kind of workplace mentality all the way back in early 2007-2008 during some of my time working at Sony, but even I couldn't have envisioned this crazed future.
The assumptions many have about how West Coast game developers feel about their audience are largely accurate— many are spiteful and dismissive of differing viewpoints. Those who can "go along to get along" remain silent, while the vocal leftist group always seems to get its way due to a thoroughly compromised HR and recruiting department.
This approach has run rampant throughout many AAA studios and honestly threatens the longevity of the entire video game industry as we know it. This is precisely why the whistleblower reached out.
They've had enough.
They want change.
We all do.
The Downfall of Concord
As covered previously, the disastrous performance of the Concord open beta is bad enough, but in reality - it's not because the game is 'bad' per se, moreso, a direct result of this toxic culture. With only 2,388 players on Steam during the open beta launch, the game has failed to generate any significant interest. This is a far cry from the numbers seen by other hero-based shooters like Overwatch and Valorant. The game's $40 price tag, in an era where most competitors are free-to-play, only compounds the issue.
Despite some positive feedback on the game's mechanics, Concord has been criticized for costing money in a field of Free-To-Play competitors, its lack of originality, and its failure to stand out in a crowded market. The characters, designed by a team more concerned with 'ideological purity' than creative excellence, lack personality and fail to engage players. They didn't need DEI counseling. They had that covered just fine in-house already.
A Call for Industry Change
The insider explained that they reached out in hopes that by exposing the truth about Firewalk Studios, this will be a wake up call for other companies - so that they will begin to acknowledge the issues of political persecution within the video game industry.
The current practice of screening new hires based on their acceptance of DEI initiatives needs to stop. Until then, studios like Firewalk will continue to churn out mediocre games, alienate their player base, and ultimately... see their projects fail.
Concord’s open beta revealed a game that is almost guaranteed to bomb spectacularly upon full release. With shockingly low player numbers (to put it nicely), an out-of-touch pricing model, and a generic gameplay experience, Sony’s latest live service shooter is on track to be a monumental failure of epic proportions. The whistleblower’s message is clear: it’s time for the video game industry to course-correct before it completely alienates the average gamer and destroys the creativity that once made it great.
Hey, we can hope.
~Smash
Let's check out my new status here.
Am I missing something? I can't seem to find the article and clicking the link simply redirects me here...