Sweet Baby Inc. employees appeared to have run a campaign in order to deflect just how much influence the company has over video game developers.
Harley Quinn about to execute Batman in “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2024)” by Rocksteady
Multiple Sweet Baby Inc. employees attempted to downplay how much influence the company has over the video game industry as they attempted to cancel Kabrutus, the creator of a Steam Curator list that tracks all of the games that Sweet Baby Inc. has worked on and are available to purchase on Steam.
Maya Kramer, who uses the handle Legobutts on X, claimed in a lengthy thread at the end of February, “these people think a company of narrative designers that freelances on projects has somehow single handedly caused the employment collapse in games, instead of, you know, the insane notion of infinite growth or capitalist greed. it’s easier to blame diversity than that somehow.”
Legobutts on X
Kramer added, “i still think it’s way more likely that they know that’s not the case and are just fine with looking stupid so long as it justifies them being loudly anti-woke whatever that means”
Legobutts on X
Later in the thread, Kramer added, “the other part of this is it doesn’t matter if you tell them the truth. they think “DEI” just steps in and changes whole games: that creators are forced by some unseen hand (the govt, blackrock?? i guess? as well as just poc in general) to make games more inclusive???”
Legobutts on X
Ironically, Kramer then posted, “fighting misinformation would be great! but social media + youtube is not equipped to hold people accountable to doing real research in good faith. just getting hits and proving their point in the absence of confirmation. it’s wild out there. nothing has changed. nothing.”
Legobutts on X
Kramer then stated, “sorry no one thing has changed: the number of people who understand that spreading misinformation just lets them be racist in public with no consequence has increased dramatically. that has changed. probably requires some fighting from those with authority! probably. :(”
Legobutts on X
READ: Sweet Baby Inc. Employee Who Tried To Cancel Gamer Over Boycott List Gets X Account Limited
Kramer was not the only one to push this narrative, Kindred also spread it on BlueSky.
Kindred wrote, “Trolling their forums and chats and realizing that they don’t care about sweet baby at all. Sweet baby is just the most visible and the most vulnerable. They think we’re some superfirm funded by blackrock receiving ESG funding and tasked by Some Entity to hold studios hostage.”
Chris Kindred BlueSky
Kindred continued, “They don’t know how many of us there are so they make it up. They don’t know what we do so they make it up. They don’t know the impact our work has on the studios that hire us so they make it up.”
Chris Kindred BlueSky
“And when they have that many open spaces to play in, they can create their own bogeymen. They think we’re actively making games worse when studios are the ones making the choices they balk at. The nature of our work is *often* at the end, and is often Just Looking At Things,” Kindred wrote.
Chris Kindred BlueSky
“As a unit, we have no power toward any of the clients we work with. They’re mad at market conditions, they’re mad at studio decisions, they’re mad at the world changing away from their… beliefs,” Kindred opined while defaming gamers. “They just need is a punching bag because they know AAA studios will sue them into the earth.”
Chris Kindred BlueSky
Kindred added, “They think they’re Doing Activism by targeting smaller, more visible organizations in hopes that AAA studios will…get scared? They don’t know. They don’t have an end goal. Just unmitigated vitriol.”
The Sweet Baby Inc. employee concluded by implying that the vitriol had something to do with Israel.
Chris Kindred BlueSky
READ: Sweet Baby Inc. CEO And Co-Founder Kim Belair Compares White Male Gamers To Picky Babies
Back in 2019, Kim Belair did a presentation at the Game Developers Conference where she revealed just how her company and others like it manipulate and control video game studios.
She said, “If you’re in development and you are part of like that dominant voice, you’re like a cis hetero white dude or just adjacent to that, do not wait until the end to call your consultants. Bring them in at the beginning. And instead of asking them, ‘Hey, is this very racist thing we did very racist? Or is this deeply offensive thing, offensive? Are you hurt by it?’ Ask them what they want to see. Ask them what would thrill them, what would bring them joy. And if you have a Team Lead put that request to them very, very early.”
Kim Belair via GDC YouTube
Next, she stated, “If you’re a creative working in AAA, which I did for many, many years, put this stuff up to your higher-ups. And if they don’t see the value and what you’re asking for when you ask for consultants, when you ask for research, go have a coffee with your marketing team and just terrify them with the possibility of what’s going to happen if they don’t give you what you want.”
“Because they have to consider– I say that out loud as a joke, but it’s actually very, very true because if you start to consider the people who are player and audience facing and you have to deal with mitigating harm and with keeping the sentiment around their game and their project positive, there’s like a genuine value that you could impress upon them both ethically and financially. You could say this is important,” she said.
Belair elaborated, “It’s also a valid discussion to have because if you’re working with a thin narrative budget and you work in AAA, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised or dismayed by the amount of money that marketing can give you.”
Not only did Belair state this all the way back in 2019, but Alan Wake 2 Game Director Kyle Rowley appeared to credit Belair and Sweet Baby Inc. for race-swapping Saga Anderson in the game.
Game Developer’s Alessandro Fillari reported in November 2023, “For creating Saga Anderson, the developers at Remedy took a different approach compared to the process behind other hero characters, resulting in a more organic creative collaboration across different disciplines at Remedy Entertainment and outside parties. Along with working with story and narrative consultant Kim Belair of Sweet Baby Inc. to refine the character voice and story arc, the key creatives of Alan Wake 2 also worked extensively with the actress playing Saga Anderson, Melanie Liburd, who offered suggestions and other insights that led to the Saga Anderson seen in the final game.”
Rowley informed the outlet, “I think that it took us a long time to find Saga. It was an interesting process, we had an idea in our head on what that character could be, but then, as the character evolves over time, being open to changing her based on input from the actors and from external sources really opened things up for us. I think that’s important for us as a studio to be okay with, because we don’t do it very often for our characters, this idea of how to create a new hero character, so it is kind of a big moment for us, and it was definitely interesting for me going through that process.”
A screenshot from Alan Wake II (2023), Remedy Entertainment
Saga Anderson was originally introduced as an Easter egg in Remedy’s 2016 Quantum Break. She was portrayed by Finnish actress/singer Malla Malmivaara.
Alan Wake 2’s Creative Director Sam Lame even revealed the character in 2015, sharing on Twitter, “FBI agents Saga Anderson & Alex Casey hard at work, looking for a missing writer.”
Sam Lake on X
Lake went on to confirm that Malmivaara was the actress playing Saga Anderson. He wrote on Twitter, “The missing writer played by #IkkaVilli, The FBI Agent Saga Anderson played by #MallaMalmivaara.”
Sam Lake on X
Rowley claims Sweet Baby Inc. was not directly responsible for the race-swap of Saga Anderson.
Kyle Rowley on X
Belair also confirmed she had been working on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 since 2020. The game released in 2023.
She wrote on X, “Working on this story (since 2020!?) has been one of the greatest joys of my career, and I mean that. The team at Insomniac Games could not have been more gracious, more inviting, more genuinely collaborative. I’m so grateful for the space they made for me and for Sweet Baby Inc.”
Kim Belair on X
Sweet Baby Inc. employees are also credited as scriptwriters for ‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ in the game’s credits. Amy Shaw is listed as a junior scriptwriter and script coordinator.
Her LinkedIn profile indicates she worked for Rocksteady from March 2020 to November 2021 as a script coordinator and from November 2021 to October 2022 as a junior writer. In October 2022 she joined Sweet Baby Inc.
The credits also list Grant Roberts as the lead scriptwriter. Roberts’ LinkedIn states he was the Lead Writer at Rocksteady from February 2019 to June 2021 where he “managed a team of diverse and talented writers on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.” He joined Sweet Baby Inc. in July 2023.
“Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” Story Team credits
There’s also an entire credit for Sweet Baby Inc. with Kim Belair, David Bedard, Sean Hennegan, Will Herring, Camerin Wild, Leah Yoes, Chris Kindred, Paula Rogers, Maxine Sophia Wolff, Amber-Leigh Blake, Dani Lalonders, Louisa Atto, and Ariande MacGillivray all being credited as writers on the game.
It’s hard to believe that 13 writers did not have a significant influence on the game’s story.
“Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” Sweet Baby Inc. credits
Clearly Sweet Baby Inc. has significant influence over these major studios. Belair admits to employing fear tactics in order to get studios to work with them.
Not only that, but it appears they also were involved in the race-swapping of Saga Anderson in Alan Wake 2 and were clearly heavily involved with the overall story of “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.”
The “Suicide Squad in Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League (2024)” by Rocksteady
What do you make of this media campaign that these Sweet Baby Inc. employees attempted to run?
This…is not surprising. Great research work here, BTW.
Why you lying? Lol
That’s all you have as a response. Better to sit this one out and get through the grieving process quietly by yourself.
Reading their substack gave some insight to 6 games.
First one: “Quantum Phantom Basketball is the Playdate game we produced and wrote for developer BRENDA ARTS”.
You can’t tell me they don’t do much when they say they PRODUCED and wrote for a developer. The rest of the credits go to writing and proof reading, developing characters for Shadow Gambit and Alan Wake 2.
But tell me why they’re excited to get “top billing” with Finji for Usual June? What does that entail?? If they didn’t play a bigger role in trying to shape games, they wouldn’t be in business.
great work
compilatory pieces are what this whole mess needs