Denis Dyack, the Creative Director for Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, and the upcoming Deadhaus Sonata declared that “developers need to keep activism out of gaming.”
Dyack shared his thoughts in response to a post from Yorch Torch Games stating, “Modern PlayStation is a disgrace” and sharing screenshots from The Last of Us 2, Ghost of Yotei, God of War: Ragnarok, and the upcoming Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
Dyack replied, “This is what happens when developers lose sight of the fact that they work for gamers. Developers need to keep activism out of gaming.”
He doubled down on this in a response to Escapist writer Graham Day. Day wrote, “Three of the four games you believe have lost sight of what works for gamers are award-winning & have sold millions on the platforms they're on. They're successful because of the quality of the team & what they know what works for gamers.”
Dyack responded, “Awards mean nothing, and they would have sold millions more if they had avoided activism and appealed to what gamers want. Despite previous successes, most, if not all, of these series are now on life support. Activism is poison.”
He elaborated in a subsequent reply, “God of War: Possibly (why I said most), if they go hard with activism, it will underperform.”
“Yotei - definitely, underperformed,” he continued. “Last of Us 2 - universally hated by fans - if they don't change course, it's in serious trouble. The Heretic - if they don't change course is DOA.”
“It has nothing to do with women; it has to do with activism,” he emphasized. “The video game industry is in a very difficult time, and any headwinds need to be avoided for success. Yorch Torch Games is not alone in his criticisms. Developers should take note.”
He tripled down in another post where he shared a photo of Kathleen Kennedy wearing “The Force is Female” shirt. He wrote, “Activism is poison. No IP is too big to fail. The Force was not female, and we work for gamers.”
Dyack is no stranger to saying that developers work for gamers. During an appearance on the IGN Unfiltered podcast back in May 2019, he said, “As game developers, I think we work for gamers. That is rule number one.”
He also reiterated that belief back in January writing on X, “The guiding compass for developers should be that we work for gamers. Unfortunately, too many developer try to impose their values within our medium. There is hope however, as some of us understand this is folly.”
”Make games for gamers - you work for them - it is that simple,” he added.
While promoting Deadhaus Sonata, he also said, “Gamers deserve more then a bait and switch. We work for gamers, and this should never be forgotten.”
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I would like to see another installment in the series. Looking forward to the Defiance remaster.