Sandy Petersen Explains Why Video Game Developers Aren't Pandering To The 2.6 Billion Christians In The World
Age of Empires and Doom developer Sandy Petersen explained why video game developers are not pandering to the 2.6 billion Christians across the globe despite studio talking points saying they want to represent the world around them.
Numerous developers especially the large ones are always claiming they are trying to represent the world around them. They use this talking point to justify all kinds of wokery whether it be gender ideology, feminism, or critical race theory.
As an example, Microsoft’s Gaming for Everyone Product Inclusion Framework has an entire section labeled Representation where it claims it ensures “our players feel seen and connected to meaningful experiences”
In fact, it goes on to note that it measures progress in representation through a “breakdown of the product user by demographic factors” as well as an “analysis of user sentiment segmented by different demographic groups.”
However, these large gaming companies are not making games for Christians. Petersen explained why while responding to a meme questioning why devs aren’t pandering to Christians.
He wrote on X, “But there aren't Christians in their company, so they are invisible.”
Petersen then shared an example from his time at Ensemble Studios, “A fellow game dev in the early 2000s (at Ensemble Studios) gloated to me how the world was becoming atheist. I said, ‘Wow that's not true at all. Church attendance and belief in God has gone up in the USA.’ He said, ‘Well the rest of the world is becoming atheist.’ I said, ‘That's also not true. The Islamic world is moving from secularism, and if you look at Africa, South America, and Asia, Christianity is booming.’ He was finally reduced to admitting that, to him, Western Europe was ‘the world.’ I agreed that western Europe was becoming more atheist.”
To Petersen’s point the meme, which was posted in 2025 claims that there are 2.4 billion Christians. The Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary claims there are approximately 2.65 billion Christians worldwide up from 2.5 billion in 2020 and 1.9 billion in 2000.
The same study indicated that the faith is growing the quickest in Africa and Asia. The African Christian population increased from 663.6 million in 2020 to 754.2 million in 2025. That’s a 13.6% increase. In Asia it increased from 385 million in 2020 to 416.7 million in 2025. That’s an increase of 8.2%.
In contrast, Europe saw its Christian population decline from 566.9 million in 2020 to 551.9 million in 2025. Similarly in North America it declined from 273.6 million in 2020 to 271.7 million in 2025.
Of note, the study also indicated that the personal income of Christians globally was $74 billion in 2025. It even projects that that will increase to $178 billion by 2050.
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