The impact of forced inclusion: how ESG strategies are changing the gaming industry and cultural values

Companies are currently seeking to improve their ESG ratings to attract interest from investment funds and investors whose current and long-term active and passive investment programs are focused on sustainable development. This trend is particularly noticeable in the video game industry: companies are increasingly engaging specialized agencies to strengthen their social and governance component of the ESG rating by introducing inclusive components. However, their forced introduction without taking into account cultural differences and audience preferences can lead to contradictory results. The purpose of this article is to consider how this practice affects the investment attractiveness of gaming companies and their financial performance in the long term. To solve the objectives of this study, certain aspects of the activities of Sweet Baby Inc., a company that the largest players in the video game industry turn to make their content more inclusive in terms of gender, race, and sex, as well as to improve their ratings to attract large investments from funds such as BlackRock or Vanguard. The study addresses the question of how far gaming studios can go to attract audiences, including rewriting stories and destroying social norms, values, and morals. The scientific novelty of this study lies in the fact that for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of ESG strategies, in particular inclusivity, on the gaming industry is conducted, taking into account the cultural differences of the audience. Unlike previous studies, which focused on traditional industries such as energy and finance, this work considers the unique aspects of the gaming industry, where interaction with the audience plays a key role.

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