Diversity in the gaming industry is an ‘economic imperative,’ says Meta executive

March 9, 2022: -The gaming industry should reflect the growing diversity of its demographics if it wants to succeed, said Sandhya Devanathan, Asia-Pacific vice president for the global gaming business at Meta.

“It’s not just a social imperative. It is an economic imperative,” said Devanathan, speaking on CNBC on Tuesday, which decreased on International Women’s Day. In 2021, Facebook changed its company name to Meta.

The global gaming industry, which saw an increase in demand during the pandemic, was valued at more than $300 billion in April 2021 and is expected to keep growing, according to Accenture.

Women now comprise half of the gaming industry, and games need to reflect that growing diversity, said Devanathan.

She cited Meta’s December 2020 research report, which she is saying found that “many gamers would play more or would identify better with the game if they are seeing themselves reflected in the game as characters.”

She added that only 35% of those surveyed saw someone who represented them. The report pointed out that underrepresented gamers would be more likely to feel excluded and less likely to engage.

When they asked about what Meta is doing about these findings, Devanathan said that the company has tied up with academics, think tanks, and civil rights groups to “build inclusion and diversity by design.”

She added that the company had announced a $15 million fund and a two-year research program with that aim in mind.

But while Meta looks to improve its diversity, the company is no stranger to criticism on that front. It drew flak for its 2020 annual diversity report, which showed that female employees increased from 36.3% in 2018 to just 36.9% in 2019, while Black and Hispanic workers combined went from 8.4% to just 9%. It sees fewer women in its workforce in June 2021 than in the year before.

Devanathan, joining the tech sector after 15 years in banking, acknowledged that there’s still a long path to go in seeing equal participation of women in tech. She adds that she felt her case was an exception, and women are still underrepresented on boards.

She cites a Hewlett Packard internal report that found that men apply for a job when they meet 60% of the qualifications, while women apply only if they meet all of them.