Square Enix's Handling of 'Racism' Case: A Page from Sony Playbook?IndustryGamers is pleased to present you with our first column from new contributor Chris Morris, a veteran journalist who's written for CNN and Forbes, among other publications.
_ _
The tempest in a teapot surrounding a non-player character in Deus Ex: Human Revolution is threatening to become a full-fledged storm – and Square Enix only has itself to blame.
The publisher's response to the controversy over Letitia the Trash Lady fell short of what it needed to be, coming across as defensive and guarded, rather than apologetic. If this sounds somewhat familiar, there's a good reason. That's exactly the stance Sony took in April, when word first emerged that its online network had been compromised.
Take a look at Square Enix's official comment on the matter: "Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a fictional story which reflects the diversity of the world's future population by featuring characters of various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. While these characters are meant to portray people living in the year 2027, it has never been our intention to represent any particular ethnic group in a negative light."
See what's missing there? The same words that Sony avoided for so long: "We're sorry." (Also missing is something along the lines of "We screwed up," something else Sony didn't want to acknowledge initially.)
Certainly, the issue of perceived racism and the compromise of sensitive personal information are two entirely different beasts. But they're both issues that people take very seriously and personally. And by trying to defend their actions rather than immediately apologizing for them, both Square Enix and Sony risked alienating part of their audience.
Time's Evan Narcisse wrote a spot-on look at the problems with the character of Letitia. Though he was careful to note that he was not calling Eidos Montreal or Square Enix racist, that's what many people inferred from the column.
"Sony created the appearance that it was being cavalier about the incident – and Square Enix has done the same with its statement."
That's easy to understand, given that Letitia's speech patterns are reminiscent of something you'd hear in a minstrel show. And while voice acting is hardly the high point of this otherwise widely embraced game, Letitia's patois is particularly hard to defend.
Yet that's what Square Enix tried to do in its statement. Ironically, if the company had simply said something along the lines of, "We see how that character could be viewed as offensive and it somehow slipped past us in QA. We sincerely apologize and will patch that with new dialogue that doesn't say things like 'maybe it's best I don't know the pacifics' and 'I's hear' as soon as we can," we would all have moved on by now. Instead, the debate continues.
Right now, that debate is largely centered among gaming-centric sites, but mass media outlets like AP and Reuters tend to grab on to these sorts of controversies a week or so later. Following the slow Labor Day news period, you can bet the PR team at Square Enix is on high alert.
Sony's mishandling of the PlayStation Network breach made a bad situation worse. First, the company took the PlayStation Network down without any explanation, baffling gamers and putting online conspiracy theorists on edge. When it did finally address the issue, it completely avoided why the network was down and said it would only be that way for a few days. Then came the acknowledgement that it had been hacked – but it was five full days before Sony got around to apologizing.
That created the appearance that Sony was being cavalier about the incident – and Square Enix has done the same with its statement. And if it doesn't correct that quickly, it could exacerbate the problem.
Think back: It really wasn't until E3 that gamers were willing to show any sign of forgiveness toward Sony. That came after Jack Tretton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, offered an unscripted, sincere apology to gamers at the start of the company's press conference. (Previous apologies from Sony had come across as stilted and forced.)
Sony also had something working in its favor that Square Enix doesn't. Data breaches, even gigantic ones like what Sony experienced, happen in today's world – and most gamers know that. While they're frustrating and even a little frightening, there's usually plenty of blame to go around – to the company for having holes in its security protocols and to hackers for exploiting those and selling (or posting) the information online.
When it comes to something that's perceived as having racist tones, there's no finger to point elsewhere. And the only smart option is to apologize and fix it.
