Unleashed Games Founder and CEO Irena Pereira bragged about excluding white male characters from the company’s upcoming game Haven.
Irena Pereira via Unleashed Games YouTube
In a now deleted post to X, Pereira wrote , “Just wait until they notice that none of our starting characters in our alpha build are white males. None. Out of 6.
She added, “Have at it. Again I will say representation matters – and I don’t know how many games have lacked female characters, or created gameplay penalties for being a female character. Or created vertex shading on white skin to represent people of color. Games should represent…”
In another post she also wrote, “Representation matters. Inclusivity is not the same as racism. Enjoy hating on me for today. I’ll go back to making games.”
Irena Pereira on X
In a response to her original post on the thread, Pereira wrote, “Considering that ~95% of video game characters are white and male, a poor representation of the diversity of actual players, I thought it would be a fun experiment. We started with all female characters.”
Irena Pereira on X
In a post that is still public, Pereira attempted to defend her racism and sexism, “Alpha build. Demo characters. Pre release. But details don’t matter. Only outrage.”
Irena Pereira on X
In another post she claimed, “We will have a fully featured character creator on release where you can configure your character to look like you or anything you like. In the meantime, our alpha characters are static meshes for the sake of our deep focus on gameplay, first. Gotta find the fun, then add features.”
Irena Pereira on X
In another post she told one gamer to not play her game based on his user name.
She wrote, “Would I want someone who refers to themselves as ‘Shitman’ playing our game? *checks notes* Nope. So, please don’t. :) Look at us, doing great things before 10am EST.”
Irena Pereira on X
Not only would Pereira double down on her racism and sexism, but she also faced criticism for publicly claiming, “Two women sharing intimate stories about getting our periods in the Game Developers Conference ’24 merch store is the state of the game industry. #thisiswhatagamedevlookslike.”
When asked if her original post was parody, she made it clear it was not, “Fully serious. It’s nice to have other women in this industry – and to be vulnerable and real with them in a way that we can’t be with the majority of devs. This GDC was the most female powered of any of my past GDCs. I am 100 here for this.”
Irena Pereira on X
In response to one critic, she wrote, “Are women not allowed to have conversations about uniquely female biological functions? It’s not like we turned it into a game. But maybe we should.”
Irena Pereira on X
Pereira continued to use her sex as a shield, “People make video games. People sometimes talk about human things. Shocking, I know. Making video games for over 25 years with predominantly male coworkers, it was a notable moment I shared that has now somehow sparked a lot of male rage.”
Irena Pereira on X
What do you make of Pereira’s comments and her doubling down and defense of said comments despite deleting her initial posts?
