Developers Face Backlash for Character Representations in Newest Video Game

San Francisco – A new open world crime video game titled Miami Syndicate, aimed at older teenagers and adults, has sparked controversy this week over its character designs and representations. According to critics, the game perpetuates negative health stereotypes through its disproportionately high number of overweight African American characters compared to Caucasian characters.

“While some may argue the main problem is depicting violence, lawlessness, and crime in gaming, the more insidious issue here is the perpetuation of harmful assumptions about minorities and health standards,” said Democratic Florida Senator Maria Sanchez in a statement. “There are already distorted social perspectives surrounding diet and wellness in our communities of color without games distorting perceptions further.”

The noted video game culture critic, Anna Verguero, said this, “Out of the six central characters, two are African American and both of them are depicted as overweight and unflattering in a city known for beach bodies. Meanwhile the main two Caucasian characters have athletic builds, appear more glamorous, and feature more prominently in the storylines. Additionally, even the non-playable characters of color seem to be represented in the game trailers as obese more often than their white counterparts.”

Advocacy groups like the NAACP and Black Lives Matter have called on the game developer Concrete Jungle Studios to alter character designs and provide more equitable racial representations before the game’s scheduled launch next month.

“We’re glad when communities raise real concerns that we can improve upon,” said Concrete Jungle CEO Lara Thomas. “It beats a few years ago when we had to disprove the baseless claims that violent games directly cause violence. Here is something that we can actually address.”

Concrete Jungle Studios said they are already meeting to review character representations in light of the feedback and are open to improving the minority character representations, although this may cause a delay to the anticipated release date. So far pre-sale figures for Miami Syndicate remain steady despite the growing media attention over its controversial characters.