Sony Studios Defy Jim Ryan’s Neutrality Request After Roe V Wade Overturned

Games Sony Studios Defy Jim Ryan’s Neutrality Request After Roe V Wade Overturned Paul Tassi Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. News and opinion about video games, television, movies and the internet. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience.

Got it! Jun 25, 2022, 10:01am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin PlayStation Sony We are seeing a wide range of reactions from game studios across the industry in the wake of the overturning of Roe V. Wade by the Supreme Court yesterday. They range from Destiny developer Bungie, who immediately published a policy that they would pay for employees in affected states to travel to ensure their reproductive rights remained intact, to EA, who crafted a vague statement about “the well-being of our people” that seems crafted to be as inoffensive as possible.

But one interested schism has erupted. Previously, when the leaked Roe draft went out earlier this year, Jim Ryan sent an email to Sony employees saying that “we owe it to each other and to PlayStation’s millions of users to respect differences of opinion among everyone in our internal and external communities. Respect does not equal agreement.

But it is fundamental to who we are as a company and as a valued global brand. ” He then went on to discuss how he wanted to get a dog, and talked about his cats’ birthday cakes. The email did not go over well at the time.

Despite Ryan’s call for neutrality and “respect” from Sony employees on the issue, now that Roe V Wade has officially been overturned, a number of huge Sony studios clearly had statements pre-drafted for just such an occasion, and they all went out almost in unison in contrast to Ryan’s “let’s just all get along” rhetoric from his initial email. Naughty Dog: MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry Guerilla Games: Sucker Punch: Insomniac: Sony Santa Monica: There may be more, but those are the big guns I’ve seen, representing the vast majority of Sony’s top hits. Clearly, they were in no mood to wait around for whatever new email Jim Ryan was about to send out, and did not take kindly to his last one.

It is not clear if Sony’s internal tone changed to allow or encourage developers to make statements like this, or if they all just did it on their own, but it very much appears to be a coordinated move. Bungie too is technically in the process of being purchased by Sony, but retains a lot of independence. It’s not clear if these other studios will provide similar benefits covering travel for out of state healthcare necessitated by the ruling (Update: Sony as a whole, reportedly will).

I will be curious if Ryan or Sony corporate will dare issue another internal “tone request” like they did last time, but they probably learned their lesson. And we’ll see if these studios take further action as this ruling becomes a reality in the coming weeks and months. The rest of the industry is continuing to speak out, and those that remain silent are increasingly conspicuous by comparison.

Update : Sony is indeed listed among a number of companies who will indeed provide travel reimbursement for healthcare expenses related to the ruling: Follow me on Twitter , YouTube , Facebook and Instagram . Subscribe to my free weekly content round-up newsletter, God Rolls . Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy .

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