GYGO: Miles Morales, Goodbye Bigots, and More Online Protests

Hi, I’m Zainabb, the newest addition to GYGO! Here’s the news and remember, all Black lives still matter. Here’s this week’s news.

Sony Announces Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Confusion Ensues

During this week’s PS5 event, Sony revealed Spider-Man: Miles Morales, coming to PS5 this winter. The announcement trailer has generated a lot of excitement (a Miles Morales game! Finally!) and seems to showcase the PS5’s graphics capability in some stunning rendering of Miles himself.

Our squeeing was promptly dampened by Sony executive Simon Rutter’s remarks that Miles Morales was an expansion to 2018’s Spider-Man, rather than a full sequel. Insomniac Games have since clarified that Miles Morales is a “standalone game”, although we’re still awaiting further details. Other sources have suggested that Miles Morales looks to be a smaller standalone game that builds on the lore of 2018’s Spider-Man.

We’re still unsure what to expect from Miles Morales, and it’s disappointing to consider that this game, featuring a Black and Latinx hero, may be smaller and shorter, with less time and resources put into building the project than into a full-length game (including its 2018 half-predecessor and its gross relationship with police). Still, it marks a Miles-tone (sorry) in Spider-Man games, making Miles the leading playable protagonist for the first time.

Racist Riot Games Executive Fired Following Social Media Post about George Floyd

Riot Games has fired former Global Head of Consumer Products, Ron Johnson, following a racist statement by Johnson on Facebook.

We don’t need to repeat Johnson’s words here, but this is a positive step towards accountability and institutional change at Riot Games. Following employee allegations of gender discrimination, sexism, and sexual harassment at the company, Riot Games paid $10 million in a gender discrimination lawsuit at the end of 2019. Since then, the company has publicly stated their intentions to foster a diverse and inclusive working environment, and recently committed to several donations to justice reform organisations as well as to initiatives to support Black game developers.

However, it’s important to highlight that despite these public efforts, notable conservative Johnson was still working at Riot Games, despite posting other bigoted views on social media whilst representing the company. Whilst firing Johnson is a necessary and positive step forward, Riot Games needs to step up and protect its marginalised employees at all times, and not just when there’s bad publicity.

In other news…

Not everyone can attend protests and rallies in person, so Sims streamer and modder Danielle Udogaranya (EbonixSims) has launched a Black Lives Matter rally in-game for fellow players to show their support. Simmers are sharing their protesting on social media using the hashtag #BLMSimsRally.

The PS5 console itself was also announced at this week’s PS5 event and it’s received… mixed reactions.

Okay, I’ll stop now. Sony also announced a sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn. Coming to PS5, Horizon Forbidden West will follow Aloy as she journeys west to a “far-future America to brave a majestic but dangerous frontier.” I still haven’t played Zero Dawn but given the criticisms of cultural appropriation by Native Americans, describing Forbidden West’s America as a “frontier” to be “braved” is pretty yikes.

Finally, a thread of The Last of Us Part II reviews written by women. Enjoy.