The movie industry has benefited a lot recently by releasing films directed by people of color and women. Some recent successes have been for the movies Get Out and Wonder Woman. It goes without saying the biggest success so far though has been Black Panther which is comparable to Star Wars right now in terms of popularity.
Things have been improving with the gaming industry, although video games are still need some improvements. As noted by GameIndustry.biz, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer talked more about this topic recently at the DICE Summit. He wants the gaming industry to be more inclusive in the future because it makes “good business sense”.
Here’s some of Spencer’s comments on the matter: “These movies advanced a new and arguably more accurate way of seeing and relating to people in the real world. They showed that representation matters; not just for the community [the films] represent, but for the world at large… These commercially and critically successful films won hearts, minds and, yes, box office. Representation isn’t just good common sense, it’s good business sense.”
He not only wants games to be more diverse, but developers behind the games to be more inclusive as well. As aforementioned, filmmakers have recently been doing this to a lot of success.
Spencer also wants the gaming industry to have nicer communities so people of color and women feel more comfortable playing video games online. Spencer feels some gaming communities are either racist or sexist preventing some people from enjoying or playing online video games.