Sweet Baby Inc. is confirmed to be working on Insomniac Games’ upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine game as hacked video shows that Jean Grey as a “grocery store auntie.”
A screenshot from Marvel’s Wolverine (TBA), Insomniac Games
Video of gameplay from Marvel’s Wolverine was hacked in December 2023 with Insomniac Games confirming the hack.
The company wrote on X, “We are aware that stolen data includes personal information belonging to our employees, former employees, and independent contractors. It also includes early development details about Marvel’s Wolverine for PlayStation 5.”
It added, “Marvel’s Wolverine continues as planned. The game is in early production and will no doubt greatly evolve throughout development, as do all our plans.”
An update regarding Insomniac and Marvel’s #WolverinePS5. pic.twitter.com/CMkCCoZwwj
— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) December 22, 2023
READ: ‘Tales of Kenzera: ZAU’ Director Abubakar Salim Discounts Game After Boycott
The hacked footage revealed that there is gameplay that allows players to play as Jean Grey. It also revealed character designs for Jean Grey that make the character look more like Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy than any Marvel Comics artists depiction of the famous member of the X-Men let alone live-action depictions such as Famke Janssen or Sophie Turner.
Former World of Warcraft Team Lead Mark Kern aka Grummz recently pointed this out commenting, “Look at what happened to Jean Grey from Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Wolverine from these leaked early screenshots of the first, beautiful model, to the masculine, world weary version we have today. They are ruining Marvel.
Jean Grey #1 Variant Cover by Derrick Chew (2023), Marvel Comics
Not only did Kern point out the differences in the images of Jean Grey, but he also shared confirmation that video game consulting company Sweet Baby Inc. is indeed working on the game.
Kern noted, “And yes, Marvel’s Wolverine is a Sweet Baby Inc. game.” He then shared a screenshot that was originally captured by X user MasteroftheTDS showing Sweet Baby Inc.’s X account from September 2021 that confirmed its involvement in the game.
The post reads, “*THWIP!* (and also *SNIKT!*) SO excited and grateful to say we’re part of the teams bringing Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine to life with the amazing folks at Insomniac Games. It’s been a truly Marvel-ous experience.”
Sweet Baby Inc. on X
Returning to the topic of Jean Grey being made uglier, Kern rejected arguments attempting to explain the phenomenon, “We were told it was the difficulty of scanning actors, or just tricks of light and bad screencaps. We were told we were incels for even questioning it. As a game dev, I knew this was BS. As gamers, YOU knew it was BS from comparisons with Asian games. Yesterday, we found out. A Principle Artist (read this as lead) at major studios including Naughty Dog, Rocksteady and Respawn told the truth…”
Something big happened yesterday and most people missed it. Every theory we had about the uglification of women in AAA gaming turned out to be true.
Look at what happened to Jean Grey from @insomniacgames Marvel’s Wolverine from these leaked early screenshots of the first,… pic.twitter.com/Zm5h6ovgwD
— Grummz (@Grummz) June 19, 2024
Grummz is referring to comments made by Del Walker a Senior Character Artist and Principal Character Artist who previously worked at Rocksteady on ‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ at Respawn Entertainment on Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and at Naughty Dog on The Last of Us Part II.
Walker wrote on X, “There’s been a handful of times I’ve pitched black women characters that look like this, then after 10 iterations the concept or model comes back without a speck of the original beauty I pitched.”
There’s been a handful of times I’ve pitched black women characters that look like this, then after 10 iterations the concept or model comes back without a speck of the original beauty I pitched. https://t.co/gxTvwujcSx
— Del Walker 🇵🇸 (@TheCartelDel) June 18, 2024
He also responded to one user who stated, “Dude, a friend of mine, an Asian woman, was just telling me about how this happens to her when she designs Asian women for Western games! They always have her work redesigned by a Western artist to look more stereotypical then pat themselves on the back for good representation!”
Walker replied, “Yes. They also assume adding stereotypical ethno-features with a blunt force is some sort of hail mary, when a range of diversity exists inside diversity.”
Del Walker on X
In another follow-up to his original post, he wrote, “I’m not taking about mild changes. I’m talking about pose, aura, style, softness, age, flair. I hate giving gamergate men fuel – but it’s very difficult to pitch beautiful or vain black women in games without them coming back like grocery store aunties. There is room for both.”
I’m not taking about mild changes. I’m talking about pose, aura, style, softness, age, flair. I hate giving gamergate men fuel – but it’s very difficult to pitch beautiful or vain black women in games without them coming back like grocery store aunties. There is room for both. https://t.co/Z9sapkXkw0 pic.twitter.com/h0pRwb2dlm
— Del Walker 🇵🇸 (@TheCartelDel) June 18, 2024
Grummz commented, “Yesterday, a Principle Artist (lead) at major studios such as Naughty Dog, Rocksteady Games, and Respawn talked about his frustration at trying to get his designs for beautiful female characters approved at AAA studios. Every time he concepted the, every time he pitched them, every time he brought it up at meetings, he was ignored.”
“Inexplicably, each character went from beautiful to “grocery store aunties.” Each revision worse than the last,” Grummz continued. “This is no fan of gamers or GG2, this is a liberal, woke dev, with seemingly a lot of talent, who is bringing you this information. And he hates to have you use it, but he feels strongly enough that even he has to say something.”
“This is no myth,” Grummz declared. “This is no conspiracy theory, this is happening in AAA and you were RIGHT all along. Why is this happening?”
Yesterday, a Principle Artist (lead) at major studios such as @Naughty_Dog, @RocksteadyGames and @Respawn talked about his frustration at trying to get his designs for beautiful female characters approved at AAA studios.
Every time he concepted the, every time he pitched them,… pic.twitter.com/kv76JRIuP6
— Grummz (@Grummz) June 19, 2024
READ: ‘Marvel’s Wolverine’ Associate Narrative Director Mary Kenney Attempts To Defend Sweet Baby Inc.
He explained, “We know that Sweet Baby Inc. is involved with Marvel’s Wolverine. We know this because of Sweet Baby’s own tweets, and because a Narrative Director for Insomniac’s Wolverine game ran to the defense of SBI.”
“SBI does 2 things well talked about,” he continued. “They assist with dialog and story, and they also assist with character design. By now, everyone knows SBI’s public mission to insert DEI sensitivity into all games. This is their sole purpose and pitch as a consulting company. And this explains why Jean Grey went from great to ‘Grocery store auntie.'”
Sweet Baby Inc. About Us section
Grummz went on, “We see this every where in AAA Gaming, why was it necessary to reduce Firecracker’s butt size in COD? That cost time and money to do for a skin that was already completed. It made no sense. The only reason, the only reason at all, is politics.”
“After MeToo, there was a great call to reduce the sexualization of women,” he elaborated. “This horrible incident slammed into the Entertainment industry. Everyone overcorrected. Now, you can’t have ANY female traits in gaming at all. Not even a butt. Ridiculously, the butts have to be smaller than even the male characters. Censorship ran rampant on outfits, with Asian games being targetted the most.”
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
“The second reason was the political imperative to place women equal to men, even in places where it made no sense. Girl Bosses. To prove women equal to men, they focused on the masculine traits…they had to beat men at their own strengths,” he detailed. “This mean beefing up the women models, giving them thicker bodies, having them beat up multiple men in physical fights in movies, acting stoic and above all, suppressing their feminine features and strengths.”
“They call this ‘making women more realistic’ but it’s really just making them the opposite. They are completely unrealistic now,” Grummz observed. “Cheap stand-ins for male tropes that display none of the natural strength of women and how they are strong in their own right.”
A screenshot from Forspoken (2023), Square Enix
He continueds, “we’ve had a couple of internal leaks, including Naughty Dog, that have told us that female characters must be changed” in order to appeal to the PRIDE community. “Studios are bending over backwards to LOWER THE BAR for femininity in order to make this easier. Square jaw, removal of hips (pokemon go), reduction of bust size…all of this fits.”
He then questioned, “But is all this really helping?”
He answered his rhetorical question, “The answer is No. None of these changes help. They don’t help the industry, plagued by layoff and soft sales. They don’t help gamers, many of whom are women who want to play beautiful female characters. They don’t help trans, who also want to pass as beautiful women and aspire to that.”
“These are empty, token gestures, born of a knee-jerk response to misguided empathy. They do more harm than good, and they will continue to hurt the entire industry as the trend continues. It’s time to stop,” he concluded.
The answer is No. None of these changes help.
They don’t help the industry, plagued by layoff and soft sales.
They don’t help gamers, many of whom are women who want to play beautiful female characters.
They don’t help trans, who also want to pass as beautiful women and…
— Grummz (@Grummz) June 19, 2024
What do you make of it being confirmed that Sweet Baby Inc. is working on Marvel’s Wolverine and that it appears they are making Jean Grey less attractive?
Well, I’m not going to buy that game then.
We’ll see what the final version of her looks like since this is a very early build after all.
Anything with Sweet Baby Inc attached is dead on arrival. Deal with it.
Well Spiderman and God of War managed to survive at the end of the day. What I meant is we’ll see what she fully looks like and if the haggard look is slightly lessened.
Stop moving the goalpost. Sweet Baby Inc is the kiss of death.
Paid shill.
Ya if Sweet Baby, or any other DEI consultant works on a game, then I’ll never pay for it. At best it’s a high seas exclusive that folks can try to mod the degeneracy out of.
There’s no excuse for such ugly characters. Looks bad? Tweak it. Bad scans? Not true, we’ve seen plenty of attractive male characters done. Can’t get it to work? Well maybe stop doing semi realism.
Except she’s a self insert for all the toilet-faces that presently populate such enterprises. If we were able to shine a light on all these cockroaches, their pathetic behavior would be so obvious.
Only chicks bitchin’ about the male gaze are the one’s to have never receive it.
Yeah, we’re all aware. Do keep up.
Sorry. Didn’t realize I was trailing so far behind. I was trying to lob you a positive, kae. Won’t make that mistake again. You’re on your own and on my negative now.
She looks like the old lady who served me at waffle house a few weeks ago.
I’m sure she was nice.
Stop defending DEI consultancy firms.
She was fine, but she smelled strongly like cigarettes – same vibe I’m getting from that Jean design for sure.
Paid shill.
I might actually find a way to play this game for free just to find horrible ways to kill kathleen kennedy. Truly.
So that lead picture is now my laptop background for as long as I can stand it as a painful, ascetic reminder of how sad I am at the present.