The E3 2021 Take Two Panel

E3 continues until later today, as I write this. I’ll stick my hands up and say that this year’s E3 hasn’t been the best showing either from the end of first-party, third-party, or overall from the ESA’s E3. I might go into all of this in more detail later on, but for now, I want to talk about something I was set to cover that hardly anyone knew about. In the schedule of E3 this year there was a small company you’ll probably have heard of, they might have published a game or two, called Take-Two Interactive.

Well, the introduction to that show went a little like this: “With the gaming community already being such a diverse place, it’s time for the creative space to reflect that.” I had a question from that, which was, what does that have to do with Take-Two, one of the most creatively bankrupt publishers around? The introduction continued with, “So, here is Take-Two with an important discussion on the necessity of diversity, equity, AND, the corporate responsibility to honor those things.” Right, so that was several buzz words for a boardroom to feel happy, and someone threw in Take-Two so they can say they aren’t racist, not now and not ever. Cool!

See, I don’t have a problem with what Take-Two was trying to do, other than calling themselves creative by paying someone off with a billion dollars. What I do have an issue with is the way expectations are set through, to steal a phrase from the Obama White House according to both Michelle and Barack’s books, what is called “the optics.” In short, that is to say, “what does this look like with fresh eyes, eyes that want to find a fault.” The optics, as it were, of putting Take-Two Interactive next to Capcom, the PC Gaming Show, Ubisoft Foward, and Intellivision, of all things, is that they would do as everyone else does.

Ahead of the showcase, they did make a small announcement that they wouldn’t be showing off games, however, that isn’t always going to penetrate every barrier. I watched the live chat on Gamespot’s broadcast of the keynote on diversity, and it was not managed well. I’d say 99% of the chat were yelling for some form of Grand Theft Auto with a few for Bioshock. Some tried to be funny by asking for Among Us 2 and other tripe, but for the majority of the fast scrolling chat, it was Grand Theft Auto. Then you look at the likes and dislikes of that broadcast, and at the time of writing it is sitting at 460 likes to just over 4,000 dislikes.

The problem here, as I glance over and see horrid little comments, is partially the viewership. However, the issue also lies with the expectation set out by saying Take-Two will be alongside several gaming reveal showcases. Yes, one of the many horrible little comments claims this is political with “I wanted games[,] and now we are listening to a liberal discussion.” Comments like that while someone is talking openly about the importance of diversity to improve games boils my blood. I’ve spoken about it before, I might not be the most qualified to speak on it, but I do feel strongly about it: Gaming, in general, is lacking that diversity to show a proper Black, Asian, or Hispanic experience.

I’m not even going to touch on the fact it is June, and I didn’t include LGBTQ+ in there, but I easily could. A lot of triple-A games are lacking that diversity and that ability to showcase these experiences, and that’s what this panel was trying to talk about. However, with a company with a name that can (at its mere mention) spawn such a crowd around its keynote, the expectations should have been set much sooner. Either through naming it the “Take-Two Diversity keynote,” as clunky as it sounds, or something else so people knew it would be a Zoom meeting on equity.

Linked below is the entire keynote from Gamespot’s channel, which I do recommend watching. Though go into it with the understanding that it is slow, and very much just a local council meeting-esque talk over Zoom.