Photo Source: Unspalsh

Social responsibility has been a focal point of leading companies around the world for some time now, with the need to incorporate diversity in the workforce, while also improving practices to be environmentally friendly, being key to new policies. Nowadays, these kinds of policies rank among the most important for top companies to incorporate.

As stated by Clarence Nunn, the chief commercial officer of GE Capital Solutions-Commercial Distribution Finance, the message of diversity, inclusion, and opportunity starts at the top, embracing all of the employees across a company. Change has to start at the top, but we’re now at a point where we can see changes being made across the board. Under increased scrutiny from news outlets and independent governing bodies, the biggest and most public-facing corporations have, naturally, been the main topics of conversation. However, even companies that aren’t as ever-present in the public eye have been working behind the scenes to become more socially responsible, with the gaming industry helping to lead progressive change.

These are some of the initiatives and companies that are leading the way in gaming, helping to bring about more inclusion and more socially responsible practices.

Shining a spotlight on success with diversity initiatives

In game development and technology industries, the discussion of diversity and inclusion has been serious for around half-a-decade. However, in 2016, Marcus Montgomery wanted to switch the conversation. Instead of analyzing where diversity is scarce, the lead game designer wanted to highlight those who are the focus of diversity initiatives in the industry and are already doing great work. To achieve this, Montgomery created the website We Are Game Devs.

The mission of the website is to celebrate the diverse talent in the gaming industry. By featuring people who work across all departments of game development, the website puts a spotlight on instances where hiring diverse talent has paid off for the companies. Montgomery prides himself on championing diversity initiatives and has personally worked on ten titles, which have brought in over $66.7 million in sales. He has used his own success to help create a platform for others.

We Are Game Devs is comprised of several interviews with strong, creative, and diverse people from across the industry, including those who work in art, audio, design, production, programming, and as founders of indie development studios. It provides an important and humanizing perspective to the need to diversify the industry.

Supporting companies with progressive practices

Not only do companies themselves seek to improve through diversity and social responsibility policies, but companies looking to do business with other companies often pride themselves on teaming up with others who have the same progressive way of thinking. With top companies looking to combine with those who are forward-thinking in terms of social responsibility, there’s an even greater requirement for businesses to follow suit, which is only a good thing for the gaming industry. In iGaming, there are so many different slot game developers offering their games to platforms, so some narrow down which of the top quality free slot games are on offer, based on the social responsibility standards set by the game developers. A key focus of the free game selection is the integrity of the software providers, with IGT and Aristocrat’s games – like Golden Goddess, Siberian Storm, Buffalo, and Choy Sun Doa – featuring in abundance.

IGT is one of the world’s leading game companies. While the quality and entertainment value provided by their games is crucial, to the company, supporting the industry, community, and world is just as important. In their 2018 sustainability report, IGT reported that they were in the process of earning the ISO 14001 Environmental Certification, which involves increasing recycling, food waste composting, reduction of paper consumption, and the reduction of energy consumption.

Over at Aristocrat, diversity, and inclusion continues to be a major driving point of the games development company. Some companies tasked with achieving a greater amount of diversity hire someone new and then carry on as normal, but Aristocrat strives to be a name that attracts people with diverse backgrounds, and also manages to retain the diverse members of its team. Last year was a big year for the developers, with them changing business practices, behaviors, and policies to ensure that they’re doing everything possible to promote diversity and inclusion.

Companies across gaming are focussing on inclusion, diversity, and social responsibility, which is creating a much stronger industry with a much more progressive image.