Today we got a healthy dose of next-gen information, delivered to us by a bevy of excited, breathless developers and publishers. Here’s the thing: not a single one of the presenters at the PlayStation 4 event were women, and people noticed.
https://kotaku.com/sony-announces-the-playstation-4-coming-this-holiday-s-5985759
It’s not something folks are happy about, either.
https://twitter.com/embed/status/304396563386621952
This is a french Vita ad, which we covered before.
https://kotaku.com/in-france-the-ps-vita-is-being-promoted-with-four-brea-5957428
Yo Sony. 100% record on white dudes on stage for the #PS4 announcement! There was a woman being attacked by a black guy in a vid tho.
— Tiemachine (@Tiemachine) February 21, 2013
To contextualize the next couple of tweets: Elizabeth retweeted Leena’s tweet about no women presenters, and because of that, started talking about what she was going to do in response to the event.
https://twitter.com/embed/status/304400046001123328
https://twitter.com/embed/status/304400516572663808
https://twitter.com/embed/status/304396566293250049
ＮＯＴ Ａ ＳＩＮＧＬＥ ＦＥＭＡＬＥ ＳＰＥＡＫＥＲ ＡＴ ＨＩＧＨＬＹ ＡＮＴＩＣＩＰＡＴＥＤ ＰＳ4 ＥＶＥＮＴ
— ✿ nina freeman ✿ (@PersocomNina) February 21, 2013
'a glimpse in to the future of play' where everyone will finally listen to sony when they say that women are icky
— cj✨ (@gaycosmichorror) February 21, 2013
Interesting to note: There were no women on stage at Sony's PlayStation 4 conference. #1reasonwhy
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 21, 2013
@jasonbellinger She was not on stage. It was recorded.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 21, 2013
No women at the two hour Sony Playstation 4 announcement. Sad state of gaming. #PlayStation4
— Kate Falanga (@MightySquid) February 21, 2013
Getting women in games development is a noted problem in the industry, but the last year has seen a rise in conversation when it comes to gender and sexism in this industry. People will notice if, like today, there are no women presenters at your event.
The question is whether or not that will change. I admittedly didn’t even notice there weren’t women presenters until someone else mentioned it, which probably says something about how used to situations like this we all are. Some won’t even bat an eyelash.
As a side note: the picture above shows some guys from Bungie, who you might remember because they looked super uncomfortable as they refused to raise their hands during their presentation (or because of Destiny, sure!)
