38 minute read
Next Generation
input latency falling from 97ms to 60ms – that’s around 2 whole frames at 60fps – versus the One X. In practice that meant we found it easier to track targets and hit our shots in games.
If this plays out across all titles then the Xbox might legitimately be able to claim a competitive edge in cross platform games.
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On the downside, the controller doesn’t do anything to excite, there are no other new features, and the AA batteries, practical though they may be, feel a bit last decade.
COMING SOON
Exclusive next-gen content for the console was never really the plan for the Xbox Series X. As we revealed right back in January, its first-party Xbox Game Studios are planning to release all titles on both generations, at least initially. That said, we expected at least a couple of new cross-gen titles to come day-and-date with the new hardware.
Instead we’ve had to wait until the very day of launch for enhanced updates to come to this season’s third-party big hitters. Watch Dogs: Legion, for instance with its ray-traced reflections of a rainy London looks superb. And it is just one of the 30-odd titles that had enhancements at launch.
And there’s so much to come. As we write this we’re waiting to get our teeth into Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War (at 120hz) and Cyberpunk 2077. Both of which will be key early benchmarks for the new hardware.
It’s an incredible launch window lineup for a new console, a true game changer in how consoles are launched, compared to the spotty handful of launch titles (often one for each key genre) offered on launch day for generations of consoles gone by. The modern industry demanded this continuity, and based on what we’ve seen of titles so far, Microsoft has kept up its side of the bargain.
good. The controller is capable of stopping the trigger halfway through its pull – just like a trigger stop on a high-end SCUF controller – it can even push back against your finger, like a gun kicking back as it fires. It’s astounding and joyous and we really hope developers, beyond Sony’s own, make the most of it.
Practically-speaking, Sony has moved to a USB type-C charger, and carries on with a built-in battery. Making for a sleeker appearance to its controller. All together we love the DualSense, it’s a great evolution of the DualShock tradition.
There is one problem. Why did Sony cut-off DualShock 4 support on the new console? Yes, some retailers and Sony itself will be most pleased that there’s a whole new round of controller sales here. However, for developers looking to make couch co-op games over the next year or two, the lack of support for DS4 on new games is a serious setback. The only route around it is to launch your game on PS4, with compatibility for PS5, though we’re not yet certain how long that loophole will exist and Sony’s perception of it.
We respect that Sony wants developers to move forward, and with the new haptics in particular they certainly have, but we can’t see any reason why supporting the old controllers (only for multiplayer titles) would overly limit innovation generally.
PRE-PLAYED
We’ve mentioned the pre-installed Astro’s Playroom, but it’s worth noting that there’s an awful lot more to this game than you’d imagine. It’s an extensive celebration not only of the DualSense controller but also of PlayStation’s incredible legacy – long-term fans will be delighted, and it’s a great reminder of just how long Sony have been getting things right when it comes to games and consoles.
But beyond that title, the range of truly new games available to play on the PS5 at launch is somewhat limited. With the cross-gen title Spider-Man: Miles Morales being the main consideration – and with the greatest respect to Insomniac that largely builds on what has come before.
The only true next-gen exclusive, a remake of Demon’s Souls by Bluepoint, looks amazing and will be available at launch, but sadly didn’t make it to us in time to write this piece and again, however impressively reworked, it’s not truly a new title. Also coming just in time for launch will be Sackboy: A Big Adventure, a lovely looking, and highly ejoyable, cross-gen platformer from Sumo Digital.
The only other true PS5 exclusive, Destruction AllStars took a hard turn a couple of weeks back and will now see a PS+ launch early next year, with Sony presumably looking to replicate the success it saw with Fall Guys on the service.
SET PHASERS TO ULTRA
Looking at enhanced titles, the best example to date is Gears 5, whose graphical enhancements bring the title up to, and in some places past, top-end PC detail settings. Texture detail and effects are all bumped up to nice effect, while the game runs at a smooth 60fps in the campaign, albeit with a dynamic resolution which largely hovers below a full native 4K. It’s deeply impressive-looking, especially given this is simply a patch to an existing title.
The game’s real party trick is 120fps multiplayer, which gives a silky smooth look and control response that’s unparalleled on console. DIRT 5 and indie gem The Falconeer are also both offering such a mode at launch too.
For now, only a handful of players will have an appropriate TV or gaming monitor to appreciate the upgrade. But for
Now, three key titles for launch from Sony’s publishing arm is actually pretty respectable, especially given the paucity of a first-party publishing lineup across the road. Although with expandalones, remakes and cross-gen titles aplenty, Sony’s lineup still lacks a sense of excitement and ‘exclusivity’ for owners of the new console.
As with Xbox, upgrades to key third-party cross-gen titles, releasing over the next couple of weeks, will largely be available at launch, giving us little opportunity to test those right now. Updates will also come through gradually to existing firstparty titles.
So we return to Spider-Man: Miles Morales in order to gauge the early potential of the PS5. The standout upgrade here is undoubtedly an update to 60fps in its 4K performance mode. The experience of swinging through New York is much
NOW ENTERING TIER 2
After many years of debate about the future of physical games and optical drives, both PlayStation and Xbox have taken a middle-ground approach in the new generation. With different but similar paths when it comes to optical drives.
While both new consoles, in their full-fat forms, may cost the same. The simple fact is that to make the leap to the nextgeneration the price of consoles has risen from £350 to £450 in a seven year period where wages have remained largely stagnant. Even factoring in UK inflation (which really doesn’t tell the whole story) that’s a step up from under £400 to £450.
The price rise is actually very reasonable given the trend in graphics card prices over the last decade, plus there’s the addition of SSD storage. However, the high initial price and cost of production means that these two consoles won’t be dropping to family-friendly prices anytime soon.
In fact they may never hit that £200-250 price bracket that makes consoles an impulse purchase, or Xmas present, and bring mass market adoption. Instead both Sony and Xbox will be relying on tier-two devices to address that market. And here the platform holders differ radically in their strategy. The Xbox Series S is a wholly new class of console, giving Microsoft an entirely new play, with a £250
price point straight off the bat. It will recoup some of that low cost through higher margins on digital games of course. However it’s achieved, the idea of a competitively priced family console from the very start of a new generation is a deeply exciting one. We hope that the additional market reach isn’t paid for in compromises in terms of pushing the envelope across this generation.
Meanwhile Sony’s PS5 Digital Edition, costing £90 less at launch, also gives Sony some great options. With small discounts it could be far cheaper than the Series X and yet more powerful than the Series S. It’s a potentially strong, aggressive move, but one that the current market leader may not need or want to make.
And Sony will need to be careful in balancing stock between the two essentially identical consoles, and maintaining a sensible price difference. Otherwise they could be criticised for trying to push consumers unwillingly to a digital option.
Either way, the second-tier consoles are a considerable blow to the already shrinking physical games market. Both platforms will need to treat specialist retailers with care if they still want a high-street presence for their devices – the first example of which has already been seen in Microsoft’s deal with GameStop in the US, giving the retailer a cut of digital sales over the lifetime of devices sold.
competitive games it could become something that developers should strive to include, especially for cross-platform titles, as high-refresh rates are increasingly standard on PC.
Elsewhere Forza Horizon 4 now runs at a silky smooth 60fps at 4K, making an already amazing looking game now look and feel even better to play. Again, it’s roughly analogous to having a serious gaming PC. Meanwhile the already pretty The Touryst is being rendered at a whopping 6K and then downsampled to match the output resolution, giving it a near-Pixar level of visual sharpness. It’s a neat use of all that extra power and it’s also one that developers of less demanding titles would be wise to experiment with.
Arguably, while the latest graphical effects are fantastic to have, it was the old consoles’ CPU, rather than the GPU, that was limiting the design space of games going forward. The processor in even the Xbox One X was starting to look woefully underpowered. The new processor runs up to 3.8GHz, up from 2.13 GHz in the One X, and real-world performance is well beyond even what even that gulf suggests.
The new processor provides acres more headroom, allowing for those higher frame rates initially, but also unlocking better physics simulations and more detailed worlds with more going on in them – there’s also 16GB of RAM to match. Theoretically, the new console, with a keyboard and mouse, could run heavy PC strategy titles from the Game Pass’s PC selection even. The full capabilities of the processor will take longer to be put to use, improved with the higher frame rate. There’s also a graphics mode, which utilises ray-tracing effects and higher detail levels, but at the usual 30fps.
It all looks great, and Insomniac has done a fantastic job, not only in making a snow-covered NYC look incredible, but also in terms of plot and characterisation – we love Miles and his extended family. However, the gameplay does feel a little too familiar for our liking, especially set against the backdrop and expectations of a new console and controller.
MORE THAN RAW
As previously mentioned, one area the PS5 does have a clear technical advantage over its competitor is the speed of its SSD
NEXT-GEN IN NUMBERS
For those who haven’t been following the endless specification speculation of the last 12 months, here’s the key points in one easy table
Price
CPU GPU
RAM
Memory Bandwidth Video Output Storage Storage speed External Storage
Optical Drive
PlayStation 5 £450 (Digital Edition £360) 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5HGz
448GB/s
4K, 8K, 120Hz 825GB SSD
5.5GB/S (Raw), 8-9GB/S (Compressed) NVMe SSD Slot, USB HDD Support
4K UHD Blu-Ray Drive (except on Digital Edition)
Xbox Series X
£450
8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.8GHz
10GB at 560GB/s, 6GB at 335GB/s 4K, 8K, 120Hz 1TB NVMe SSD
2.4GB/s (Raw), 4.8GB/s (Compressed) Seagate External 1TB SSD Expansion Card, USB HDD Support 4K UHD Blu-Ray Drive
especially given Microsoft’s cross-gen commitment, but there’s nothing stopping other developers from finding a use for all that power sooner.
FASTER THAN LIGHTNING
One big impact today is the minimisation of loading times, thanks to the new SSD storage system. Even with existing titles, players can navigate games more smoothly, with no long pauses to break their immersion, which should also increase retention. Meanwhile, newer titles should be able to practically eliminate loading times altogether, when taking full advantage of Xbox’s full Velocity Architecture design.
The SSD is paired with a three-game Quick Resume feature, allowing players to move almost seamlessly between multiple titles without loading them from scratch. Switch between a preferred multiplayer title, an ongoing single-player epic, plus Minecraft for the kids, all taking a few seconds each.
The Xbox Series X has a 1TB drive (providing 802GB of available space). That should satisfy most users for a while, but with the ability to switch games so seamlessly, and with the very biggest titles pushing 250GB, it’s only a matter of time before some users will want more storage.
Microsoft does allow expansion of that core storage via an official 1TB Storage Expansion Card, made by Seagate, although at £220 it’s a hefty investment for consumers – and goes to show how much it has cost to add such storage to these consoles to begin with. Users can also plug in USB hard disks or SSDs, in order to store titles for play later, by copying them on and off the main device, or to run backward compatible titles directly from the attached drive.
It’s a well thought-out provision of storage, providing both speed and flexibility depending on the users needs. The shift to an SSD is the most clearly appreciable upgrade for the new console at launch. It really does make playing games a better experience – even if the Xbox doesn’t have any titles on the horizon that utilise the new hardware in unique ways.
storage, thanks to a custom chip that’s handling transfers and compression. That provides transfers at up to 9GB per second, compared to 4.8GB/s for the Xbox.
SSD storage is already a huge step up from the hard disks of old, with even the Xbox being fifty times faster than a typical hard disk, so it remains to be seen if Sony’s technical advantage here will amount to a significant advantage in reality. Looking at the practically instant load times already on offer, my feeling is that speed alone won’t be the key.
What is more likely to be a factor is the way Sony deploys its first-party development teams. We’ve already seen Ratchet and Clank’s: Rift Apart from Insomniac Games demoed, which is making full use of the SSD in its design, shifting the action from one detailed world to another at incredible pace. With Microsoft’s commitment to previous generations and to the PC platform through Game Pass, we’re unlikely to see anything that can only run off an SSD from its first-party studios anytime soon.
In this area then, it’s Sony that is pushing the envelope. And while the success of that experiment remains to be seen, the attempt is to be loudly applauded.
More immediately, playing as Miles Morales on an SSD is a joy. There’s no loading time coming in and out of buildings and you can fast travel in an instant across the map. It’s something you get used to very quickly but it’s no less of a step forward for it, and I certainly wouldn’t want to go back. Having an SSD keeps you more engaged and immersed.
It’s worth noting that Sony doesn’t currently have a quick resume system to match Microsoft’s, which lets you switch between up to three games in a flash. Plus the PS5 has less storage space as standard, 667GB vs 802GB. Sony is yet to detail which NVMe SSDs will be compatible to upgrade the existing internal storage, but they won’t come cheap.
DROPPING ON SUPERSTORE
Supporting that fluidity of play from the SSD is the new UI, which has been totally revamped for the new console and to great effect. The main menu has been relocated to the top left of the screen, leaving far more space for the content to shine, with games and other menu options getting the benefit of almost the whole screen as you browse across them.
The biggest change for the industry is the integration of the store into the UI. It’s still the option on the far left of the main menu, but it no longer has to load into the store, instead consumers can just navigate straight on in.
The new store itself again goes big on creative assets, the menu tiles are large, which looks good but means you can’t see an awfully wide range of games at first glance.
UNIFIED INTERFACE
As a part of its continuity play, the UI, store and features of the new console are identical to that of the current devices, all of which have seen a fairly recent major overhaul.
Looking back, the new interface is a huge improvement over the one we started the last generation with. The interface is now intuitive and attractive, placing the content you most want front and centre, and making it both look enticing, while providing updates and related streams. All of which is now presented in pleasingly curved-off squares.
The store sits on the front page and surfaces a few top titles and offers. Players can move the store or even remove it if they prefer from the main menu, but it seems that few do this given Xbox’s well regarded performance as a digital marketplace by the publishers we’ve spoken to. It’s a seperate app, one you can access from the app menu if required, but it surfaces a lot of key content on the main menu and loads in an instant.
Inside the store, everything is easy to navigate, search is quick, there’s a clearly marked wishlist section and options. Interestingly, Microsoft has added a section for hardware, allowing consumers to buy consoles and peripherals – though that wasn’t populated at the time of testing.
There’s nothing much else to report, but it all works very nicely and developers and publishers alike can expect it to keep on working for them just as well as it has to date.
THE NEXT GEN STARTS NOVEMBER 10TH
With the excellent Xbox One X still feeling relatively fresh, it’s arguable that the Xbox Series X wasn’t really needed just yet. That though would be churlish in the face of this fantastic piece of hardware from Microsoft.
Brilliantly conceived from sharp edge to sharp edge, the new console provides lashing of graphical muscle to lavish on current and new titles. The new CPU removes any potential bottlenecks and opens up the design space. Plus we have
The upside to that approach is when you go into a game’s page and the presentation is sumptuous, as it is on the home screen, with a huge canvas for developers to publishers to really push their vision. One gripe (which isn’t particular to PlayStation), is why there still don’t appear to be high-end video assets to promote titles: 4K, low compression and even 60fps frame rate video would really help to sell next-gen graphics.
Minor grumbles aside, Sony has provided some intriguing, progressive options in the UI. There’s the ability to deeper integrate the PlayStation into a game’s own options, letting players join server queues for a specific mode directly from the PS5’s front end.
A new pop-up menu is available in-game as well, providing numerous options. The most intriguing is contextual help videos, which players can watch in game, and even in split-screen to get them past tricky areas.
Demon’s Souls reportedly has 180 such videos – which seems both logical (Souls games are hard!) and against the point (Souls games are supposed to be hard!).
It’s great to see someone tackling the clunky ‘pause game, get out phone, YouTube search, watch ad, scroll through video, watch help, repeat steps’ method of in-game help. That said, we’re not expecting many third-party developers to go to the lengths that Bluepoint and Sony has done on Demon’s Souls. Still, even a handful of videos, to help with key sections, would be a boon for many games.
We suspect that this feature will struggle if it doesn’t get immediate support, as players simply won’t think to look for help in game if there’s not broad coverage. There’s been some concerns about where smaller developers will find time, but maybe they could cut deals with appropriate influencers to provide the content in return for a fee or just pre-launch access to the game.
dynamic latency and 120fps support, to make console games more responsive than ever before.
All this makes the console far more closely aligned with high-end gaming PCs. And for developers that’s great news. It also has the power now to tackle VR, should Microsoft be that way inclined. Meanwhile, the immediacy of SSD gaming should mean that gamers can consume more content, and play a wider range of titles, which sounds good for the bottom line.
Our only gripe is that there’s little to truly push (or grandstand) the console right now. Advances in software
engineering, allowing for big cross-gen games in the launch window, are a marvel. But a lack of new titles is disappointing, although given the year everyone has had, we can’t blame Microsoft or its studios for that.
On a similar line it will be intriguing to see just how developers, both first- and third-party, take advantage of the console over the next couple of years. With the cost of game development, will publishers really want to make bold steps forward in design if that precludes previous hardware – say utilising the SSD or ray-tracing in their designs? That looks likely to be the big talking point over the months to come.
It may be an evolution of what’s come before, but the Series X is still a huge move forward, and we can see it becoming a classic of console design. For the industry this is an incredible platform, one with huge potential that allows for the smooth hardware transition that our industry demanded.
The future looks bright and the Xbox Series X should be a crucial part of what could be the most successful generation yet. All it needs is one incredible, synonymous game – a Mario 64, a Halo: Combat Evolved – to stamp its mark on history.
A TOUCH OF MAGIC
The PS5 looks to be yet another incredible piece of gaming hardware from Sony. We’re a little concerned about the generation-to-generation rise in prices for the new consoles, but the all-around power, features and utility of the PS5 more than justifies the added expense.
Console launches will never be these climactic, year zero resets ever again. Instead there’s a sense of continuity both here and with Xbox’s latest effort. But Sony certainly has to be applauded for creating a sense of theatre, adding a little magic to what could have simply been a more powerful box for the same job.
The design of the console, the new UI, the new controller with its incredible triggers, and even the pre-installed Astro’s Playroom all made us feel that this was something new, something playful. And we hope that sense of play is felt not just by consumers but also by developers, who are then motivated to find new ways to engage consumers.
In a similar respect, Sony’s outstanding first-party studios look best placed to make the most of the new generation. Right now, Sony still has cross-gen titles on its slate, such as next year’s Horizon: Forbidden West. But the first true next-gen exclusives will likely be pushing the envelope here on PS5, with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (below) leading the way.
It’s a shame such experiences weren’t available at launch, maybe that’s the pandemic’s fault, maybe not, but it’s been a terrible year and we’re giving everyone the benefit of the doubt.
Will Sony come to regret being a step behind Xbox when it comes to graphical muscle? Well, it was in the same postition with the PS4 Pro and One X and that didn’t seem to have hurt it. That said, the most competitive of gamers may well err towards the most powerful machine. For developers, the gap will be easy to bridge and most consumers still care more about brand loyalty and exclusive titles than graphical niceties.
The PS5 might not quite thrill at launch but it’s packed with potential. It’s no mean feat to provide both the continuity the industry demands and the sense of the new that it craves. Even at this early point, we can confidently say that the PS5 will serve the industry admirably, and right now it looks to have greater potential when it comes to pushing back the boundaries of the form.
Women in Games The State of the Industry
Ahead of the Women in Games Awards, Chris Wallace reached out to both the judges and industry veterans to learn what needs to be done to make the industry a welcoming place for all
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We’re absolutely delighted to be hosting the Women in Games Awards this year, even if it is six months later than planned and will now be livestreamed instead of our usual event. But then uphill struggles are no stranger to the women in our industry, so it seems somewhat appropriate.
All that said, we’re very happy with the outcome, we’re working with game event production experts ADVNCR on the awards, and thanks to their enthusiasm we’ll be doing a full live production.
Whatever the format, the Women in Games Awards continues to allow us to celebrate the hard work and
accomplishments of just some of the many amazing women in our industry.
Ahead of this year’s awards, we reached out to our judges and other industry veterans to get a broader perspective. We wanted to find out, in their words, how the industry had changed over the years, and the work still needed to be done.
THE STATE OF PLAY
“I have seen a huge change in the attitude and diverse makeup of the games industry over the last decade,” begins Rebecca Sampson, director of operations at Hangar 13. “I started in the industry fresh out of university and wanted so badly to fit in
and make a lasting impression, as working in games was my dream career. At the start, I unfortunately dealt with leering from male colleagues, as well as muttered sexist jokes and remarks that I wasn’t sure were intended for me to hear. I was young, shy and naïve, and I didn’t know what was normal for the games industry at the time, so I kept quiet and ignored it.”
This experience of dealing with sexist remarks and ‘jokes’ was a common one among the women we spoke to, as Caroline Miller, owner of Indigo Pearl attests:
“I feel much more empowered to call out sexist behaviour now,” adds Miller. Comments made in the past that I would have passed off as ‘banter’, I’d no longer smile through today. But I also have to recognise that I’m older and a director, so that will have something to do with it as well.
“That’s not to say that women who do feel uncomfortable and do nothing are at fault, they are not. It can be excruciatingly awkward to go against the herd, especially when you might be the only female in the room. But personally, for me, I feel a lot bolder to confront this type of behaviour now than at the beginning of my career.”
Cat Channon, director of corporate communications at EA also echoes these experiences, thinking back to her days in journalism:
“When I started out I was one of three women working in the editorial department of a well-known videogames magazine,” says Channon, “in a building full of hundreds of male journalists.
“I recall one incident when, having reviewed a high profile racing game, (and not particularly favourably), I was trolled by one of the biggest name studios in the industry for being a woman who (in their opinion) couldn’t know about cars. The studio head even put in a complaint to my editor about it. It seems crazy looking back that my gender was even entertained as a discussion.
“That simply wouldn’t fly anymore. Our communities are too aware, active and engaged to let it and in that respect things have changed but there are some aspects where there is still work to do.”
“As the years have gone by, I have noticed a significant improvement in the way I have been treated and am treated currently,” concurs Sampson. “However, there is still more opportunity and work to be done.”
MAKING PROGRESS?
Work indeed – it’s not enough to simply be content that we have changed conditions from how they were ten or twenty years ago. The industry needs to continue to change to make it a truly welcoming place for all. Are we still heading in the right direction?
“I believe times have changed,” says Sampson. “Women have more of a voice and are being taken more seriously, as well as being respected, but we still need more allies to help keep this moving forward and to drive important change to the industry. I have personally found there can be pressure to be visible and have a large social ‘presence’ in order to make an impact and be heard, especially with more women having opportunities to speak up about issues important to them.”
“I think it is heading in the right direction,” adds Cheryl Savage, director, gaming EMEA at Facebook, “but it doesn’t mean it’s time to stop trying to steer it. The 2020 UK Games Industry Census showed that people of colour and members of the LGBTQ+ community are represented in the gaming workforce at higher levels than other sectors. But women still only make up 28 per cent of the gaming workforce, which is well below the national average of 50 per cent in all sectors.”
“I do feel the games industry has made progress,” says Abbie Heppe, live project lead at Media Molecule, “albeit kicking and screaming in some cases as women have shared their worst and most traumatic experiences. There is a lot of conversation within the industry itself, but it takes the right people, from top to bottom, to engage with these issues, take them seriously and build better workplaces.
“The industry has changed over the years, but it’s not due to an industrywide shift – I went from a company with Exclusive Media Partner
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Cheryl Savage, Facebook almost no women in non-admin roles to a company with women in all roles that takes diversity seriously from an executive level. It makes a huge difference. Industry-wide, there is still plenty of work to be done in regards to unconscious bias, retention and career growth of women in our companies, amongst other things.”
It’s important to note that the games industry is comparatively new, and constantly reinventing itself, which makes it vulnerable to the same kind of ‘bro culture’ that has plagued Silicon Valley. But as Ukie’s Dr Jo Twist notes, this youth also presents opportunities.
“The industry is a young one,” notes Twist, “which means we can learn from the mistakes of others. We have a lot more work to do, but from where I sit, I see the UK industry collectively recognising that better diversity and inclusion across all teams – but especially in leadership roles – is critical to our creativity, our innovation, and success as humans and as businesses. Just in the last three or four years there are so many more brilliant advocacy networks and groups doing different things, but with the same aim, which can only be a good thing”
Of course, as Hannah Jay Rees – release quality manager and women employee resource group community chair at Unity – notes, these issues are sadly not exclusive to our industry, but are the result of societal problems.
“I still think that gender issues aren’t just a games industry issue but actually a societal issue too, you see so many factors such as gender equality, gender discrimination, working culture, imbalances in demographics and so on, in so many other industries, especially the tech space as a whole and even in day to day situations.
“We still have a long way to go,” says Jay Rees, “but having these initial conversations about why these issues shouldn’t exist is definitely a step in the right direction. It’s really refreshing to see the games industry paving the way on these topics and noticing problems that arise as fundamental human rights. Hopefully having these hard
conversations and women having the confidence to speak out, will eventually change mindsets, enable people to see the benefits of a balanced workforce and the importance of accountability for these issues too.”
“These issues aren’t unique to the games industry,” agrees Teazelcat Games CEO Jodie Azhar. “Many other sectors, especially other technical industries, face problems of career inequality. Overcoming these issues is not unique to our industry either and working with other industries and learning from them can help us not to continually repeat these problems.”
SUPPORTING WOMEN
The games industry may not be able to directly fix deep-rooted societal problems, but it can take steps to ensure we support the women in our companies and our industry as a whole. Emma Smith, head of talent at Creative Assembly, has some tips about how to do just that.
“There are a range of proactive steps studios can do to support women in the workplace,” says Smith, “and I’m confident that Creative Assembly does a fantastic job of this. These steps extend from recruitment practices, marketing and events, to policies, processes, training and career development.
“Our focus right now is in rolling out a new training programme on inclusive behaviours in line with our studio values. The core premise is for everyone to reflect and consider our everyday language and behaviours and their unintended consequences. It’s a fantastic piece of work that we’ve developed with our external specialist, Voice at the Table. We also actively work to create safe places for conversation within our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Network. This network has an active voice in our Diversity and Inclusion work, acting as a focus group as well as an informal route for raising suggestions or concerns.”
Making sure your workplace is a safe and welcoming place for all of its workers should be a basic tenet of any company. But sadly this has proven so often to not be the case, something that Gemma Johnson-
Brown, chief operating officer at Dovetail Games can relate to.
“It’s 2020 and women continue to face harassment, victimisation and microaggressions due to their gender, for some work is sadly not a safe place,” says Johnson-Brown. “The games industry, where many work because it is their passion, their love, their hobby, their craft is an extension of them and parts of the industry disregard that.
“The workplace should be a safe place, a place where every voice is heard and appreciated, where you can be your authentic self and are welcomed and valued, it’s 2020 and this is a basic right for all. When recruiting, interviewing or welcoming new starters at Dovetail Games, I make a point of telling people this, it should be a given you get all these things but I know for some it is not what they have previously experienced.
“My first industry event was not a pleasant and welcoming experience, it was loud, crowded and over indexed with leering men. I did consider if this was the right move for me but fortunately I got talking to a student who was a Women in Games Ambassador and she suggested I look them up, now I am part of the executive team and proud of the global community we have fostered and grown - this gives me great hope for the future of the games industry.”
DIVERSIFYING
Attracting a diverse workforce – and keeping them safe and comfortable – is not just a benefit to the workers: it’s also beneficial to the companies themselves. By having a diverse workforce, particularly in positions of power, you can promote a healthier culture and attract more diverse candidates.
“It has been great seeing smaller companies make an impact by having representation right from the top of the company and creating an inclusive culture early on,” says Teazelcat Games’ Azhar. “When potential candidates feel that a studio is going to be inclusive by seeing who is already on the team and that they are in decision making positions, they’re
much more likely to apply because they can see themselves and their ideas being taken seriously and feel that they’re much likely to grow in their professional capacity there, rather than have to fight with the systemic prejudices that still exist in our industry.”
This is of course, especially true for studios founded by people from diverse backgrounds.
“I’m delighted to see more games studios being founded by women and people of colour,” continues Azhar. “Not only does it provide workplaces that offer a different studio culture, but we get different types of game, or the exploration of different ideas and themes within existing genres. It’s still disappointing to see large companies not investing in female led teams, or a lack of large funding going to female run teams.
“Smaller funds do now exist that offer support to female led teams, but it feels that we need radical change to shake up the industry, otherwise people who are underrepresented in our industry will continue to deal with the same challenges for the next 10 or more years.
“While not every studio can have representation in their founding team there is still room to make a team inclusive. In particular ensuring you have a diverse hiring team will help remove bias in the application process and if candidates can see that it’s an inclusive team they’re more likely to apply. Large studios have the capacity to put underrepresented people in leadership positions and give them the support needed to succeed.
“It’s easy to view this kind of action as giving underrepresented people an unfair advantage, however, that completely disregards the disadvantages they face constantly in their career.
“So many women with great potential never make it to the top because they are never given the same opportunities as men. If we want to ensure workplaces provide equal opportunities for all then studios need to uncover this suppressed potential and give it the power to shape and improve their teams.” Gemma Johnson-Brown, Dovetail Games
Hanna Jay Rees, Unity
