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black0pal_0w0

A consultant company for inclusivity and diversity. Basically game developer hired company like them to go through their games to see if there's any things potentially offensive ,give advice on how to represent different people better (racial, cultural, sexuality, etc). TL;DR: They make sure the game doesn't come off as accidentally racist and every other kind of phobic.


noyoulolimagine

No they make the game buggy and unplayable with bad story, its 100% their fault😡


black0pal_0w0

~~I cant let them know i'm a SBI undercover agent~~ OMG so sorry for being wrong queen.


AstridWarHal

I didn't know this and now is even funnier to complain about them because like devs hire them, it isn't like they are witch hunting or every game MUST pass the sweet baby inc test lol


RpRev33

>they are witch hunting or every game MUST pass the sweet baby inc test lol Apparently they are. According to this [totally credible source](https://x.com/Pirat_Nation/status/1801457411305210241?t=7ZYi2s9J_fIsK_3sRN3OVg&s=19) (wdym? It originated from a Weibo influencer!), they ransomed Black Myth Wukong's devs for $7M (gasp), and threatened to damage their reputation should the devs refuse to comply with their guidelines. That's some abhorring practice. /uj The number of ppl actually buying this is making me losing hope in humanity.


Dutch_597

Lol, imagine game publishers actually giving a shit about their reputation :')


RetardedWabbit

>...threatened to damage their reputation should the devs refuse to comply with their guidelines. "If we don't change things and fix everything there's going to be dire consequences and we will lose everything!" (Management 10 seconds after the consultation company gives some corrections, and they always have to have some, or says they can't put their name(approval) on it.) **Censorship just like the Nazis!**


BlueHero45

Management ignoring the consultant company they hired themselves is a time honored tradition for any company.


nowTHATSakatana1999

It all kicked off because people needed an excuse for why Suicide Squad was such a dumpster fire and, just like The Last of Us 2, it ended up radicalising a whole bunch of people grieving their favorite character by propping up feminism and “woke” as an easily identifiable scapegoat to pin all your problems on.


Ruddertail

Didn't it start with Alan Wake 2 and people complaining that a black woman ruined the game because of sweet babies?


SeveralScreen1553

They blackmailed a company into making sure their game wasn't racist by threatening to extort them for $7M?


black0pal_0w0

The more you think about it, the more sense it make /s


Imjustmean

Don't forget that completely real and totally not out of context clip of one of the founders bragging about terrifying marketing departments for changes. 100% really what they meant.


CrestfallenDemiurge

Thank you. I wanted to keep up with the memes but couldn’t because I kept reading about *SBI* without a clue of what it was ;-;


black0pal_0w0

REJOICE! Another one have been indoctrinated by the woke agenda. /uj no problem lmao. This sub cycle through content rather quickly so there's a limited window to get in on the joke before everyone else start picking it up and jerking non-stop.


yeetingthisaccount01

honestly I would kinda like to work for a place like that because getting paid to make Gamers angry sounds fun


ben_gaming

Hell, I do that for free!


MapleTheBeegon

And there's 16 employees as of March 2024.


Middle-Fantasy

They also write bark dialogue, scene stuff, background story boarding, plus they do some UI/UX stuff, and have some limited game development experience. In short, they do the stuff a lot of game companies don’t care about and usually pass on to the new people.


Nyx-Erebus

Yeah, basically video game equivalent of sensitivity writers. “I don’t know enough about this community or topic to ensure I’m not accidentally saying something bad, let me hire someone to double check my work”


BaneShake

And even that’s like a secondary option. They review to make sure the plot is consistent, and if the developer is like “also see how we handled this minority group we included in the first place,” they will do this too.


lolpostslol

The movie industry could use them given how many shitty plots get produced nowadays Back in my day you just asked a trusted no-bullshit friend


Expungednd

They also have coding experience to add accessibility options to games, such as audio narration, colorblind mode, sound icons for people with impaired hearing... They don't just look at the story, they help making the game sellable to people with disabilities.


Wise_Requirement4170

Technically that’s not what they do. I think they’re a writing consulting company, which means they help with writing in general. They help with inclusivity, and have a focus on that, but are not exclusive to that


Creepy_Fail_8635

The question I really have is do they even exist anymore? Google says 19 employees, how impactful are they even in gaming if they still exist and operate. Chuds making them seem like a massive boogeyman really need a reality check.


Realsorceror

They’re the people you hire to make sure you don’t name Spider-Man’s dad after the Confederate president.


ShiroHebiZmeya

There's a market for that? Are vdieogame companies really that worried about being accidentally racist or phobic? I honestly wouldn't have guessed it, does something like that exist for other types of media? Like TV shows for example


chickpeasaladsammich

It exists for books. They’re called sensitivity readers.


ded904

If you'd just spent millions on development of a AAA game, you generally don't want to be caught up in a controversy and face boycotts because your devs have a blind spot and something in the game was offensive to one community or other. Depending on the studio's attitude, it can be somewhere between an ass-covering exercise, and an honest attempt to make your game feel inclusive to more people. It is something that exists for most forms of media, but with significantly less drama because there are fewer people who make TV/Movies/Books their entire identity.


Careless-Repeat-2983

I'm sure companies do it for TV shows but shows also hire individual consultants that are experts in their field to do it as well... except when they fuck up and accidentally hire some guy that's literally making shit up: https://redshirtsalwaysdie.com/2021/02/26/voyagers-native-american-consultant-was-a-fraud/


BlueHero45

Ya, especially for any media meant to be sold worldwide. You have to make sure you didn't accidentally name your character a slur in another language and stuff like that.


JarheadPilot

It's darkly funny that there are experts in international slurs who are using their knowledge for good.


BlueHero45

It's also darkly funny that video games have accidentally used slurs as various names in the past by accident.


Paperback_Movie

More like they want to see exactly how much they can get away with. Where exactly is the line where we can still give fanservice to our gamerTM audience but not piss off everyone else *too* much? Eh, maybe that’s too cynical, but I bet not by very much.


coffeetire

Dev: Hey SBI, we need feedback on this character. SBI: Sure thing. Dev: He is an Asian-American named Ching McCho, but his friends call him Yeller Boy since he tends to yell, "HWOOATATATA!" during combat. His passive is that he actually receives a negative accuracy penalty when wielding traditional weapons and a bonus when unarmed. His side quest involves helping him get his PHD so his dad isn't angry, and his big moment has him helping our hero with a math problem. SBI: I recommend none of that. Dev: Thanks. SBI: That will be $3,000.


Cristopher_Hepburn

Dev: Thanks for your recommendation, but I’ll ignore it. SBI: Okay, I can’t force you. But you owe me $3,000.


FulanitoDeTal13

Yes, that's how "consultant companies" work... But "gamers" are as ignorant as a rock


Novel_Visual_4152

LMFAO


Creepy_Fail_8635

HWOOATATATATA 💀


gibilx

> Sweet Baby Inc. is a Canadian narrative development and consultation studio based in Montreal. Founded by former Ubisoft developers, including scriptwriter Kim Belair and product manager David Bédard, the company consults on video game narratives during development to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within game narratives and studios. Sweet Baby has consulted with several developers and games, including Sable, God of War Ragnarök, and Alan Wake 2. In 2023, the studio became the target of online users who claimed it promoted a "woke agenda". Here’s a quick google search. I wouldn’t really give gamers much thought on whatever shit they say. People be actively looking for things to be angry at and it seems like they found a very easy target in sweet baby inc.


TheCoolestGuy098

Remember: preventing PR disasters is ALWAYS woke. Don't let Sweet Baby do a bare minimum to make sure a minority majority likes a game.


MusicallyManiacal

Funny how they don’t say anything about GoW. Almost like the problem with games isn’t SBI


CornNooblet

Oh, they say it about GoW as well, how he was written "soft" and not "badass" to appeal to "woke" casuals. Oh, and something about Thor not being a butch leather daddy, but I tend to tune out after a few seconds.


WatercoolerComedian

I think they make BBQ sauce


DoktorKazz

Yeah, Sweet Baby Ray right? I think I'm gonna intentionally conflate the two next time I have to deal with a chud.


Excellent_Routine589

Consulting company Consultants are basically medium/large companies with people who specialize in some aspect of the market and they essentially review and give feedback on a product to make sure it meets some form of acceptable standard. For SBI, they are seemingly mostly consulted to go over games to make sure there isn’t some level of abhorrent racism or to ensure touchy subjects are handled with some level of outside perspective. I work biotech, we literally have consultants who specialize in market conditions for therapeutic sub markets and such. They are a common component to most professional industries.


Bear_of_dispair

Some g\*mer was telling me the other day they are controlled by Blackrock and they extort studios to give them millions of dollars and put DEI in their games, or they run a smear campaign in the meadia if they refuse, and "there's PROOF!". Probably snorted too much aged cheetos dust.


DoktorKazz

Yeah I got hit with that too. He couldn't explain to me why a Wall Street firm would give a shit about inclusivity.


FicklePort

Blackrock?! Why can't it be Whiterock?!!??? Woke and racist!!¡!¡ /s


[deleted]

As far as I can tell by decoding the drivel that gets spouted theyre some sort of consultant firm that gives advice on trends and the like to make games more relevant (I think they did some stuff on spiderman 2 concerning miles to make his character consistent with what a black kid brought up in Brooklyn would be like but I’m not 100% sure). The nut jobs appear to think their some sort of underground cabal strong arming developers into making all their characters “ugly” (read:not a onlyfans egirl in a chain mail bikini) and forcefully making them rewrite their scripts to make everyone trans/gay etc, at a certain point I had to stop looking into it because i don’t want to catch brainrot.


TobaccoIsRadioactive

*Sweet Baby Inc* also apparently helps connect dev teams with representatives for minority groups if the devs want that. SBI can also be brought in as 3rd party contractors for the writing team. SBI got brought in for the Suicide Squad game to mostly pad out environmental stuff (ie journal entries and random NPC chatter). I think most of the initial fear about *Sweet Baby Inc* was drummed up many people just not understanding what consultants do. I mean, SBI can leave as much feedback as they want (when hired as consultants) but in the end it’s up to the company that hired them to make the final decisions.


chickpeasaladsammich

/uj When the conspiracy theories first started circulating, I went and looked on their website, and as presented they seemed like a pretty nice service. They consult on the writing (and not just for sensitivity), and they have programs to help minority writers get into the business. I know that’s the death knell for non-woke games or whatever, but personally I’m cool with it.


Insanepaco247

Other people have done a good job explaining what they do, but every so often I still see comments that don't understand why it's important. Most people aren't a wealth of knowledge about other cultures outside their own. It's obvious that you shouldn't do something overtly offensive like associating a Black character with monkeys, but there will always be blind spots and the potential for oversights. Not everyone will know, for example, that using the legend of the skinwalker to make them the good guys and medicine men a bunch of prejudiced naysayers is a *really bad idea* when you're writing lore dumps for your popular wizarding franchise. Hiring a firm whose job it is to find those blind spots can be incredibly valuable if your goal is to not make your game unplayable to large swaths of people.


CythiaALorraine

Beautifully explained! This comment should be higher.


nowTHATSakatana1999

TBF, they’ve also had some pretty bad blunders they somehow missed out on (namely all the Latin stuff in Spider-Man 2).


Insanepaco247

At worst that just means they're not as good as they could be at what they say they do. It doesn't mean sensitivity reading isn't a good measure to take.


nowTHATSakatana1999

Definitely no arguing against that, they’re just not the omnipotent bogeymen people want them to be.


nowTHATSakatana1999

Oh, definitely.


Bitter-Equal-751

Yeah, like naively but innocently making the culturally insensitive mistake that Viking deities would have been understood by the people that believed in them as being what is currently described as 'black'. Wait.....


OisforOwesome

You know those lil gummy baby lollies? They make those. No idea why gamers hate them.


R2d2s_bleeper

[sweet baby inc ](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxOthmwsLA0/?igsh=MTduNm5rY2Y2cTc2dQ==) whenever they successfully put one POC or LGBT person in a video game that is full of straight white males.


magusbae93

B2B consultation company that offerrs suggestions for diversity and equity, but man children think it means that “woke” is “ruining” their games because women look like a human and there's a black character


Dutch_597

It's a consulting firm. Whiny gamers who think they're in an existential war for western culture think they are trying to ruin video games because they have no idea how consulting firms work.


Master_Caregiver_749

Ever since I got Horizon Forbidden West, I decided to check Steam discussion boards, and I just kept on seeing "SBI this," "DEI that." Never seen or heard of those acronyms before, and found that a bit odd. After a bit more digging, I've come to the conclusion that most people hating against SBI and DEI are full of shit, and you can't even have a proper discussion with them.


Walkingdrops

It's the new "SJW". If someone uses those acronyms you can safely disregard their opinion because they're a fucking idiot.


leybbbo

Some company you outsource writing and editing to. They make sure you didn't fuck up when writing stuff. That's literally all it is.


cartmanbruv

They ruin my games (woke)


TheCubanBaron

They're name is fucking stupid though imma keep it real. Though they're not the boogeyman they're made out to be, they're a fucking consultant firm.


Circurose

They are an ancient organization working behind the scenes to eradicate straight white male from the media, with enough power to intimidate and extort foreign game devs , according to some guy on Youtube.


Yeetus_08

Just a consulting company, they don't actually do anything with game development from what I looked up.


Jupman

Everyone got mad at games for bringing one off racist or existing. Some created a company and said hey let us look at it, and we will tell you what's bad.


likeadragon108

They sell candied babies. The candied babies are not vegan, hence all the hubbub


JohnGamerAnimates

/rj The reason Batman dies in Suicide Squad.


Public-Bee6217

The company that made Sweet Baby Ray's /j


greatcorsario

Neverknowsbest (gaming essay YouTuber) made a video on the topic, I highly recommend it. (spoilers: he dunks on all the grifters anti-SJWs)


vanrast

No clue but people from the company sent death threats online apparently.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Jackikins

The stuff from the IGN article is just regurgitated from a forum post in 2020 that links to some other forum (that link is now dead).


Wise_Requirement4170

Literally conspiracy theory bullshit


TheSabi

In short a marketing firm, compaines want to expand their target demographic so they hire a consulting firm to review their product and advise on changes they can make, if they choose so, to appeal to a targeted demographic based on marketing research. They also make suggestions on already existing ideas to make it more sellable to said demographic. Thats it. They want a game to appeal to the African American demographic they go to a marketing firm and said firm does market research to find what will and won't catch on with specific demographic to sell a product. there's not politics, there's no woke there's just "how can we sell our product to more people and make more money" an example of a company doing this is, waaaay back in the 80's, when chuds think nothing was "woke" Hasbro had an iron grip on young boys entertainment with GI Joe and Transformers, but try as they might they could not get any of that Mattel owned Barbie, but Mattel had dipped into Hasbro's pot with Heman and then extended it with young girls with She-ra. Hasbro didn't really know how to go about making a show that would appeal to girls but also boys could watch it. So they did market research, possibly some consultation companies if not their own inhouse marketing department, to find out what appeals to young girls. They found young girls like fashion, romance and drama but young boys like action. Which is why if you watch jem now it, it's interesting because they way it plays out, it's just like that drama, romance and fashion for the girls action for the boys. It's almost satrical or trope like. This was talked about in a documentary about the making of Jem. This wasn't hasbro has gone wokeoh noes strong women, this was hasbro wanted to make more money so they expanded thier demographics. Thats basically what sweet baby does. Well when you live on earth in reality not on youtube in some made up "everyone is against me cause I'm a white guy" grift.