The consulting company Sweet Baby Inc is currently the focus of a hate campaign being driven by one of the largest curators on Steam. SBI is accused of pursuing a “woke” agenda with games like Alan Wake 2 and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
What kind of company is Sweet Baby Inc? The Canadian company is dedicated to assisting developer studios in creating narrative content. SBI provides support with scripts, content design, as well as consulting in the areas of diversity and inclusion.
Clients of the company include, among others, Rocksteady Studios (Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League), Remedy Entertainment (Alan Wake 2), and Mimimi Games (Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew).
What is Sweet Baby Inc criticized for? The company is accused of pursuing its own agenda through its influence on studios and, for example, deliberately replacing white and/or male protagonists with individuals of different ethnicities and genders.
In short: SBI is allegedly making games “woke.”
Furthermore, it is criticized that Sweet Baby Inc is indirectly partly responsible for the current dire situation in the industry. The thesis of some critics: due to Sweet Baby Inc’s influence on the development of important games, these do not reach the expected quality and do not meet expectations, which in turn has led to the numerous layoffs in recent months.
Who leads the critics? The case came to light through the Steam user Kabrutus, who has made it his mission with his high-reach curator account Sweet Baby Inc detected (over 200,000 followers) to select all games that Sweet Baby Inc was involved in and to not recommend them regardless of the quality of the respective game.
A Discord channel called Sweet Baby Inc. Detected is also in focus, where alongside the criticism of SBI, GamerGate slogans, hate against feminist Anita Sarkeesian, and misogynistic image comparisons can be found.
Have there already been victims of the campaign? An employee of Sweet Baby Inc, who wanted to draw attention to the Steam curator and his activities, received so many hate messages that he had to set his X account to private. The same applies to SBI’s official X account. Even the company’s website is currently inaccessible.
By the way, Alan Wake 2 is a great game:
Is there any truth to the criticism? Alyssa Mercante from Kotaku has spoken with several employees of Sweet Baby Inc to find out how significant the company’s influence on various productions is. The simple answer: Not as significant as the critics assume.
When SBI employees appear, the story framework and the concept for the main characters of a game are already established. The narrative experts only provide the finishing touches, ensuring that characters behave consistently throughout the narrative.
The company receives support from the developer community. One theory among critics suggested that the influence of Sweet Baby Inc led to changes in the skin color of Saga Anderson (one of the main characters from Alan Wake 2). Via X, Game Director Kyle Rowley clarified that this was not the case.
We continue to keep an eye on the topic and will keep you updated. Our fundamental statement on the issue of hate is certainly known to you.
Update March 7, 18:00: Why can’t I write comments anymore? Since this is a sensitive issue that can lead to heated discussions, we have decided to close comments from now on. Moderation that would be necessary to ensure respectful interaction on this topic can no longer be provided after the editing deadline. We ask for your understanding.
