How Are Video Game Companies Getting Ready for Pride Month?
Written by Tierney Boyle
In preparation for Pride Month 2024, we will be looking at years past to predict how various video game companies are gearing up for June. Historically, Pride Month has been the prime opportunity for video game developers to show appreciation for their LGBTQ+ audience through company initiatives and free in-game cosmetics that allow players to highlight their identities. With the release of more LGBTQ+ characters such as Clove, a non-binary controller agent in VALORANT, companies are reaching for a new, year-round standard of representation for their in-game content with the evolving diversity of their narratives.
Photo credits: Riot Games
On May 30, 2024, Riot Games published their plans for their Pride Month celebration. To help bridge the gap between the developers and the consumers, Riot will be implementing a “Community Pride Hub'' where community members are able to share how they and their friends are celebrating Pride Month. People will be able to share artwork, events, and other media through this platform. This is an innovative way to spotlight the LGBTQ+ demographic and provide an outlet for talented players to show their appreciation for Riot Games titles.
Additionally, Riot Games announced an evolving playlist created by their Rainbow Rioters, the LGBTQ+ inclusion group for Riot Games employees. This playlist will continue to be updated throughout the future to include songs exclusively by queer artists.
Since 2018, free in-game content has been provided across all Riot Games titles and this year will be no different. The famed “Pride Collection'' is making its anticipated comeback to VALORANT with an adorable new addition, a Tactibear Pride gun buddy. Pride icons will also be appearing in Team Fight Tactics, and Pride-themed emotes will be making their return over at League of Legends. A Twisted Fate and Neeko emote will be this year's newest addition.
Blizzard Entertainment has also rolled out their Pride Month 2024 plans with a blog post published on May 30, 2024. A popular esports title due to their diverse range of heroes, Overwatch 2 is taking the opportunity to highlight content creators who have made a positive impact in the player community. This will include various Twitch streams throughout June where viewers will get the chance to hang out with iconic LGBTQ+ creators from the Overwatch 2 community.
Photo Credits: Blizzard Entertainment
In a strategic move to bring more viewership to the Calling All Heroes tournament, viewers can take to Twitch again to earn exclusive in-game content from the match streams on June 8 and June 9. Similar to content implemented by Riot Games, players will always have the chance to show off their identities again through Pride player icons that were first introduced in 2023. On May 15, Blizzard started a fundraiser within their Blizzard Gear store that will be sending a portion of the proceeds earned from each sale to the Trevor Project until June 30.
Respawn Entertainment has been a champion in the diversity and inclusion aspect of their in-game content. Since the beginning, their character pool has included characters with a broad range of sexualities and gender identities. In an article titled “No game does pride like Apex Legends' ' for GamesRadar, author Alyssa Mercante details the genuine and organic way developers have integrated LGBTQ+ identities into the game. Mercante had the opportunity to interview lead writer at Respawn Entertainment, Ashley Reid, who stated, “‘This didn’t begin as a box to check or much of a required conversation, it was simply the state of the world and was naturally built into the development of our characters’”.
Photo credits: EA
Additionally, the characters’ identities have been seamlessly integrated into gameplay with unique voice lines that reveal past relationships and feelings between characters. Having Pride already deeply embedded into the game itself makes up for the lack of exclusive in-game content that is provided by Respawn Entertainment for Pride Month each year. This is why Apex Legends serves as a role-model example for LGBTQ+ representation and appreciation, as these identities need to be represented year round instead of when it is most convenient for companies to appeal to their consumers.
Gone are the days where LGBTQ+ representation in video games is an afterthought. Popular video game developers are increasingly taking into account the various sexualities and gender identities that make up their player bases and weaving those perspectives into their narrative storylines and characters.
A recent GLAAD report found that 17% of gamers identify as LGBTQ+. In the near future, I believe those statistics will be replicated accurately in the storylines and character pools of many popular video game titles. For example, Apex Legends currently has 26 playable legends with 9 of which being LGBTQ+. That means 34.6% of the character pool are LGBTQ+, or around one in three characters. On the other hand, VALORANT currently has 25 agents as of May 2024. Only three of those agents are confirmed as LGBTQ+, or 12%. With the swiftness at which both of these games come out with new playable characters, it is probable that those statistics will increase within the next few years. It is important to point out that this comparison is not indicative of the video game developers ability to effectively represent this demographic, but when developers take inspiration from real world perspectives and weave them into their characters, it is crucial to be accurate and diverse.
LGBTQ+ representation is not only important when it comes to analyzing your consumer demographic, but within your workforce as well. Inclusivity initiatives have been implemented and given agency within various video game developers in order to create a safer workplace for marginalized employees, such as the Rainbow Rioters and the Blizzard LGBT+ Employee Network. While there will always be room for improvement, developers are making genuine strides to a better future when it comes to diversity and inclusion for the LGBTQ+ player base.
