The analytical company Naavik, commissioned by Wooga Studio, conducted a study of the top 50 mobile puzzles in the Western market. The results showed that very few titles can boast of racial diversity and representation of LGBTQ+ representatives.
Switchcraft — a new Wooga title
According to the study:
- only 20% of the main game characters are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) and only 4% of them are the main characters;in 40% of titles there are no blacks, Native Americans or Asians at all;
- in 80% of cases, women are the main characters of mobile puzzles, and in 36% — secondary characters;
- Only 1% of the main characters from the top 50 games identify themselves as LGBTQ+.
With the help of the study, Wooga wanted not only to demonstrate the lack of university in mobile gaming, but also to conduct a PR campaign for its new project – Switchcraft, in which there are characters with different nationalities and orientations.
There are even heroes with disabilities.
“The team and the studio felt that players should be able to see themselves in the characters (…). We hope that the time will come when the theme of university will be taken for granted, and we want to play a role in this,” commented Wooga CEO, Nai Chang.
The Berlin studio Wooga was founded in 2009 and is famous for its casual projects focused on the plot. In their portfolio, in addition to Switchcraft, there are such hits as Diamond Dash, Bubble Island and June’s Journey.
According to data from the analytical company Nielson Games, in 2020, about 10% of all gamers in the United States over the age of 18 considered themselves to be LGBTQ+.
Nielson makes a logical conclusion that “there is a community in the world of video games that has the right to vote and can influence the gaming industry.”