Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Bytes

GDC: Niantic Sees The Metaverse As An Opportunity To Level The Playing Field

Web3 cannot recreate the prejudicial problems of the games industry, says Niantic’s John King and Kellee Santiago

“Spoiler to the end of this: Niantic can’t do this alone. The industry needs your help.”

Niantic began the Black Developers Initiative (BDI) during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protest, with the intention to empower Black game and AR developers and creators, and is currently supporting five studios.

It was also funded because the IDGA found in 2019 that only two per cent of developers in the games industry identified as Black. This is the same as it was in 2014.

John King, senior producer at Niantic, also spoke of the fundamental truth regarding recognising wealth, and generational wealth, as a barrier to the games industry, with Kellee Santiago, director of external publishing, outlining the kinds of people who were shut out of the explosion of digital distribution.

King also said: “Niantic is in the Web3 movement, we are in emergent technologies. The problem is, emerging technologies are fundamentally about the divide between people with and without.” However, both also see the metaverse as an opportunity to level the playing field.

What can you do?

Niantic’s bullet points of actions include:

  • Looking for ways to be less “optimised” – taking the extra effort to be more inclusive and avoiding the biases that occur when doing things in established ways
  • Elevate BIPOC developers
  • Have a diversity and inclusion programme in the company – and if there is not one, make one

Written By

You May Also Like

Level Up

Eager to be at the metaverse frontier, but not sure how to get started? As exciting as the idea of a shared digital space...

Bytes

New blockchain gaming platform based on Unreal Engine 5.

Bytes

The record for the most expensive land sale in the metaverse has just been raised

Bytes

Voice suppression tech prevents the real world from overhearing your in-metaverse conversations

Advertisement
Advertisement

Subscribe to the future

Advertisement