#RaiseTheGame first annual report launches, highlighting industry’s progress on building a more inclusive industry

Thursday 4^th March 2021: The first annual report for #RaiseTheGame, the UK games industry diversity pledge, has been published today.

The report outlines the progress that the sector has made since the launch of the pledge in Spring 2020.

In 12 months, over 100 organisations have become pledge partners by committing their business to long term improvements in equality, diversity and inclusivity against three key pledge pillars:

• Creating a diverse workforce by recruiting as fairly and widely as possible.
• Shaping inclusive and welcoming places to work by educating and inspiring people to take more personal responsibility for fostering and promoting diversity and inclusion.
• Reflecting greater diversity in our work by striving for this in everything we do, from game design and development, through to marketing and other support services.

The first #RaiseTheGame annual report, which draws upon 30 detailed case studies from partners such as Xbox, King, EA, Jagex, Facebook, Roll7, Codemasters, Mediatonic and Sumo Digital shows how different businesses:

• Have improved recruitment practices by reviewing language on their job advertisements, ensuring interviewers are drawn from increasingly diverse backgrounds and incentivising recruiters to hire diversely.
• Creating a more inclusive working culture by running internal surveys to understand the demographic make up of teams, running unconscious bias training programmes and providing additional support to new hires to make entering companies welcoming.
• Featured increasingly diverse characters within games themselves, making games more inclusive through pro-active community moderation and building partnerships with advocacy groups to lay long term foundations for inclusive games.

The report, which will be compiled again in 2022, concludes with five recommendations for the industry:

1. Continue to celebrate and expand its commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion with real-life testimonies, case studies, and examples of progress;
2. Improve inclusive working and recruitment practices for disabled people, including hidden health conditions;
3. Continue to support remote working for those who'd like to keep working that way with realistic work/life balance expectations.
4. Implement clear mechanisms to encourage staff voice and feedback.
5. Explore and tackle the challenges of increasing representation in games through Pillar 3, diversifying our work and services.

The achievements of the industry will also be celebrated during the #RaiseTheGame showcase. Streamed live on Twitch from 5pm GMT on Thursday 11^th March and hosted by Shay Thompson, the showcase will feature games starring diverse characters, a panel of experts discussing diversity within the industry and insight from the #RaiseTheGame founding partners.

“The #RaiseTheGame one year on report shows a lot of positive progress from the games industry in regards to inclusivity, but there remains much more that we can do,” said Dr Jo Twist OBE, CEO of Ukie.

“While businesses have made strong and effective commitments to diverse hiring practices and inclusive working environments, we all collectively have to work hard to ensure that transforms into more inclusive games in the coming years.

“The full effects of the pledge may take years to fully filter through, but it’s important that we collectively continue to hold ourselves accountable and ensure EDI remains central to the sector.”

You can access the report, which was written by games writer Vikki Blake, here: https://ukie.org.uk/resources/raisethegame-one-year-on-report-2020-2021

The #RaiseTheGame showcase will be broadcast on Ukie’s Twitch channel. Head to www.twitch.tv/ukietv at 5pm on Thursday 11^th March to tune in.