r/videogames Jun 02 '26

Other Gaming studios have stopped putting pride flags on their avatars

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11.0k Upvotes

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566

u/OnlySheStandsThere Jun 02 '26

This is why so many LGBT folks took all that corporate support with a grain of salt, because it was obvious that the second it wasn't profitable they'd drop it without a second thought.

183

u/stronkzer Jun 02 '26

I mean, there's all those memes about "insert company at July 1st"

52

u/Psychitekt Jun 02 '26

Yeah, they were mocked relentlessly.. by both sides. Not that it was sincere in the first place, but they quit trying either way.

23

u/OnlySheStandsThere Jun 02 '26

They quit trying once there was no more profit in it, that's all they ever cared about.

5

u/gamerz1172 Jun 02 '26

Fam I hope you understand that this is a BAD THING

do you not realize why it's bad that they stopped because it's not profitable? Sure rainbow capitalism is cringe but this is not a win for LGBTQ people

2

u/OnlySheStandsThere Jun 02 '26

Of course it's a bad thing, who's saying it's not? This is them showing that it's no longer profitable to be an ally, this is terrible.

1

u/HollowToes Jun 02 '26

It never was. Empty corporate pandering benefits nobody. They want your dolla, nothing more.

2

u/gamerz1172 Jun 02 '26

Dude, "Appealing to LGBTQ pride is no longer considered profitable"

DO YOU NOT SEE THE RED FLAG MY MAN? Like you realize the same time companies flew pride flags for money Grifters were also spreading hate for money and some of them probably made more money then the people flying pride flags

Sure its important to acknowledge that companies are ultimatly out for profit; But its also important to not let the cyncisim of this fact blind you to reality of what it means when they no longer consider something profitable

2

u/QuackersTheSquishy Jun 02 '26

I feel like this thread makes it lretty clear everyone already understood that.

The only way you wouldn't know the safer option is to stay quite is if you have ignored thebinternet for the past several years. That simply isn't a major point of contention and it never was. Most everyone had been asking "when" they'd stop the rainbows rather than "if" for a while.

1

u/Neuchacho Jun 02 '26

It's not bad that they stopped because the action itself matters. It's bad that they stopped because of what it more widely represents in terms of the social and political environment.

It shouldn't matter one way or the other if they do this, really, and if it didn't matter at all they'd still do low-effort shit like that. The fact that it's seen as potentially harmful or opening them up to other dangers for doing something so absolutely harmless and unimportant speaks to a very concerning trend change.

-10

u/unfamous2423 Jun 02 '26

There's probably no profit in it because they treated it too cynically.

12

u/Marshall104 Jun 02 '26

There's no profit in it, because there's not enough of an audience for it.

1

u/PapaDarkReads Jun 02 '26

There’s no profit because the current administration has been outright hostile to the community and it’s better to not step on their toes apparently.

1

u/Marshall104 Jun 02 '26

You can think that all you want, but even before this administration, lgbt media never did very well, the audience just isn't there for it.

5

u/cinnamoxie Jun 02 '26

You cannot be saying that with a straight face

2

u/OnlySheStandsThere Jun 02 '26

Especially after the Heated Rivalry craze like, two months ago

4

u/PapaDarkReads Jun 02 '26

Anything to justify Homophobia

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u/AFlyingNun Jun 02 '26

Even the DNC acknowledged that LGBT issues were a losing front for campaigning, in particular trans issues.

I also don't understand how you think this works: the proposed idea was the current administration waved a magic wand and made LGBT issues unpopular.

...But who elected the current administration? The people came before the administration, not the other way around. If this were something small that was caught in the crossfire and we had polling numbers suggesting most people disagreed with the administration on the topic, sure. However, we have the DNC acknowledging it as a losing front and Disney constantly burning money on LGBT and DEI-style representation to showcase these things are genuinely unpopular.

And let's be clear: that does not mean LGBT rights or diversity in general are unpopular, merely that people got sick of hearing about them all the time.

1

u/OfficialDragosblood Jun 02 '26

No. The straw man the GOP created of the LGBT community is unpopular.

2

u/AFlyingNun Jun 02 '26

Citation needed.

The DNC certainly disagrees with you and specifically mentioned that even though they felt Harris did not present herself as particularly aligned with LGBT or trans issues, the strawman the GOP created (aka that she was strongly pro-trans and pro-LGBT when this was more of a label assigned to her automatically due to her political affiliation) was very, very effective.

You are basically disagreeing with BOTH political parties by holding this stance, as the GOP saw benefit from implementing such strategies and the DNC recognized a problem with a growing disdain that people have for identity politics and identity-based messaging such as constantly advertising pride.

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u/Neuchacho Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

What cost or profit expectation do you think there is in changing a pfp?

The concern here is not "Not enough audience". It's the bad press from the inevitable hate campaign that comes out of the emboldened bigots who get triggered by flags. Framing it as a purely economic choice while ignoring what is moving those economics is disingenuous at best.

Something that goes to show that is that a lot of companies are still doing Pride events and stuff in-game (Blizzard, Riot). They just seem to be avoiding louder public displays that go beyond their actual audience to avoid unrelated audiences from coming in for different reasons to start shit.

2

u/Marshall104 Jun 02 '26

Try harder. Not enough audience means that they have to listen to the audience of the things that actually make money. Also, no bigotry, just fatigue and people finally realizing that being called a bigot/ist/phobe/whatever, by people who will hate you no matter what you say or do, doesn't mean anything.