In a little over a year, Sweet Baby Inc. has completely overhauled its website to eliminate most of it’s pro-DEI verbiage.
When DEI Detected emerged in 2024, it was no secret that not only was Sweet Baby Inc. pushing diversity, equity, and inclusion narratives in video games, but they were bragging about it.
‘We’re part of an inclusive and knowledgeable community of diverse consultants, able to cover a wide range of cultural and sensitivity topics. Our approach leads with the creation of joy in marginalized players…’
Today, most of SBI’s website is gutted. There are no tabs for “Projects,” “Approach,” or “Outreach” that were visible in 2024. In fact, they don’t even offer a newsletter anymore; but the internet never forgets.
No matter what their team says, the company always put diversity at the forefront of its projects.
“Our mission is to tell better, more empathetic stories while diversifying and enriching the video games industry,” the front page used to say. “We aim to make games more engaging, more fun, more meaningful, and more inclusive, for everyone.”
SBI boasted that its process included providing a “multitude of perspectives” while bringing “diverse voices” on-board to “solve diverse problems.”
Other services included: “Cultural Consultation, Sensitivity And Inclusivity Reading, Risk and Opportunities Assessment, and more.”
Additionally, SBI said it could “assemble and lead” teams of “new and marginalized voices,” on top of promoting near-limitless resources for “new and marginalized talent” who have the potential to “change this industry if given the proper support.”
The company also listed portfolio reviews, mentorships, and workshops, as being available to the right person.
Under a small “Baby Q&A” section, one question was answered by a “narrative designer + inclusion editor.”
Terms like “diversity” and “representation” were rampant on the site, especially on the “Approach” page where an entire section was dedicated to “Representation.”
“We believe that representation is key to connecting players and audiences,” the website read. “We’re part of an inclusive and knowledgeable community of diverse consultants, able to cover a wide range of cultural and sensitivity topics. Our approach leads with the creation of joy in marginalized players, and seeks to be additive rather than strictly corrective.”
Any idea that SBI was never a key driver in DEI for huge franchises is not only absurd, but it’s insulting. Their former list of projects included everything from reads to complete development.
For major studio games like Alan Wake II, SBI said it worked on character arc, voices, and even provided a sensitivity reading. For God of War: Ragnarök, the company said it worked on narrative and character consultation, “with a focus on representation.”
For other games, SBI cited “narrative direction” and even “world-building,” implying a heavy hand in the production. This, in addition story consultation on franchises as big as Spider-Man 2.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League — which was of course a massive failure — actually allowed SBI to do its “banter” and cut scenes. For one game called Lost Your Marbles, SBI said it did the “full game development.”
Very rarely is a DEI consultation company willing to admit to what it does; typically, when these types of consultations are brought up, the narrative-destroyers deny having any significant input and chalk up criticisms to generic forms of hate. This happens almost uniformly across the industry.
No matter how many times they use terms like “marginalized voices,” influence over DEI-injection and repulsive narratives/characters is consistently rejected, because they know *allegedly* that what they are doing is politically motivated.
