Sony’s ‘Zero Dawn’ to break stereotypes in the gaming world. With a whole history of sexism and gender biased games, a round of scandals at multiple game developing companies offered a reminder that the gaming industry needs to upgrade the gender biased culture and reputation for such issues being faced. An incident at a conference of developers about a decade ago has become a poster for these issues in the gaming industry. A woman made a statement in front of the panel of developers from Activision Blizzard Inc., she stated that appreciating the fact that they have very strong female characters, the look needs to be changed as the characters looked like models, despite of getting applauses her suggestions were ridiculed and also received a wave of boos.
The industry continues to have a hostile attitude towards women. Microsoft Corp. hosted a party five years ago with scantily clad female dancers on platforms, the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer was forced to apologize. League of Legends maker Riot Games Inc. got sued for gender discrimination; Ubisoft Entertainment and Activision Blizzard Inc. fired several executives after the allegations of sexual harassment.
After such incidents, Sony Group Corp.’s 2017 release Horizon Zero Dawn, showcases that there is a huge market for games that don’t face such issues. The game’s main protagonist is a female character who doesn’t look like a super model, the character is named Aloy who battles robotic dinosaurs and aims to stops artificial intelligence from destroying human life on Earth. The sequel of this game, is marked to be the biggest release of the year 2022, Horizon Forbidden West launches in February. Characters like Aloy remain rare in the gaming industry.
