The official E3 Twitter came under fire after sharing a now-deleted article written by Parade centered around games that they think women would enjoy.
Despite deciding to cancel their convention this year, E3 remains one of the largest and most notable annual gaming events, which means a lot of what they put out on social media gets a good amount of attention.
That has its perks but also negatives, as the company learned on August 18 after drawing the ire of the gaming community for sharing an article that many deemed to be “sexist.”
- Read more: E3 2020 canceled amid coronavirus concerns
The article, written by Parade, was titled “The Games We Play! 25 Online Games That Women Enjoy,” and E3 shared it on their official Twitter page shortly before taking it down.
The article lists games that the author thought appealed to women include Candy Crush, Sims, and Kim Kardashian: Hollywood Adventure, with the number 1 slot being taken up by none other than Soduko.
The piece was largely viewed and condemned as sexist, reinforcing stereotypes that only select games appeal to women. While E3 themselves did not write the post, they did get massively criticized for sharing it.
Huge names within all facets of the gaming industry, including Meg Turney, Naomi Kyle, and Analynn Dang, all called out the company for tweeting the article.
Okay I don’t want to @ her bc I’m sure she did try her best, but the author of this story has a tweet from a couple days before asking if any #videogamesexperts want to help with a story w/ no replies so I guess that’s how we ended up at having Solitaire be our favorite game.
— Meg Turney (@megturney) August 18, 2020
— Naomi Kyle (@NaomiKyle) August 18, 2020
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Vic Hood, a gaming editor for TechRadar, simultaneously mocked both the tweet and the industry for its sexism, while prominent gaming insider Daniel Ahmad also voiced criticism of the piece in a short but effective tweet.
The games industry is slowly getting a bit less sexis- oh for fuck sake… https://t.co/42bIvy4OdJ
— Vic Hood (@hood_vic) August 18, 2020
tf is this https://t.co/NxcsIfg4zR pic.twitter.com/clhIHmNA7M
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 18, 2020
The same sentiment was shared by Analynn Dang, the former General Manager of the Overwatch League’s Washington Justice.
Lmao please delete
— Analynn (@bawlynn) August 18, 2020
It didn’t take long for all this backlash to hit home, as shortly after posting the article, E3 took down their tweet and accepted blame for the ill-advised decision to post it, apologizing for “perpetuating a harmful stereotype.”
We messed up. We are taking down the post and apologize for perpetuating a harmful stereotype. We will do better.
— E3 (@E3) August 18, 2020
In addition, Parade themselves deleted the article and changed the link featured in the tweet so that it redirected to a new article written by the same author but about a different subject.
