MANILA, Philippines – The U.S. midterm elections just happened, and they’re calling it a “blue wave,” insofar as the Democrats crushed Republicans. It’s truly seismic and it could have implications for gaming, if not all of Big Tech in America.
One might be tempted to argue that election results don’t really have any bearing to the business decisions to be made by the likes of Microsoft, EA and 2K. The political temperature may have changed but the gaming industry is still selling to the same demographics. But elections don’t just change the people inside a legislative chamber, they redefine how a culture may move.
How else to explain the nastiness, bullying and meanness established by virtually a decade of Republican dominance? All the various insults, retaliations and legislative violence, weren’t limited to just Trump and his allies. “The cruelty is the point,” argued journalist Adam Serwer, and the desire to inflict pain and suffering through perceived enemies became a defining aspect of life under MAGA. But you didn’t open this link to learn about American cultural politics. You want to know the relevance of this momentous political upset to the games industry.
The incoming wave of Democratic lawmakers came in largely due to contempt towards data centers. What was once an obtuse part of the tech industry has become a real point of contention among voters. They’re all less than enthused about Silicon Valley bullying its way into cities with zoning demands – and the ballot measures passed against data center construction by ten states demonstrate that. This has set the table for a greater shift in tech regulation in the United States, away from laissez-faire attitudes that have prevailed under Trump and Biden.
It’s unlikely that the United States will ever adopt regulations as broad and potent as those in the European Union. Still, tech giants should expect some reprisal, however unofficial, for all the support they’ve shown towards the far right. For all its liberal leaning roots, Silicon Valley’s billionaires had no problem opening their wallets in deference to Trump and his kind. Some chose to deploy their technologies and resources in compliance with MAGA agenda. They’ve effectively made themselves targets for people who, come January, will wield significant legislative power.
Don’t expect any immediate or overt retaliation, though. Rather, what will materialize is a desire to challenge tech practices already under scrutiny. Child protection laws that pursue the most negligent of social media platforms will ensnare companies like Roblox. Federal regulations drafted to catch the likes of Kalshi and Polymarket, which elude gambling regulations by insisting they are “prediction markets,” could impact gacha and loot boxes. And just about any new legislation focused on in-app purchases and virtual currencies will affect any game with microtransactions.
RELATED STORY: Jensen Huang resigns as NVIDIA CEO amid affair and investigations
AI developments
But what tech skeptics – whether consumer grade users of hardware or data center concerned citizens – are really hoping for is a reining in of the ongoing AI expansion. Jensen Huang’s wang probably won’t be a sharp enough instrument to pop the AI bubble. But the chambers of legislation are going to be a lot more receptive to any measures suggested along those lines. The most AI enthusiastic game companies will have to reconsider the future of AI game development, and if that happens as component prices receive a correction, all the better.
It’s worth noting that the investor mania around AI has also come at the expense of the game industry. The past few years has seen investments vanish and funding withdrawn from all but the biggest projects and safest bets. Studios have collapsed, projects have been cancelled and independent developers have had to become increasingly self-reliant and creative about resources and funding. One can only hope that a deflation of the AI bubble means that some investors might want to renew interest in gaming, if only as a similarly tech-aligned sector to bet on.
There’re plenty of ifs and buts I’m throwing around here, I’ll admit. After all, it’s not like politicians and lawmakers haven’t defied their constituents’ interests before. And the tech industry is perfectly capable of sustaining its own reality distortion field if it chooses to do so over AI. But no matter the political and legislative shift, game companies cannot afford to underestimate the cultural shift that is going to play before our eyes. Already the blue wave has humbled the voices in gaming culture that have so confidently spoken against diversity on behalf of a presumed majority.
Make no mistake, they’ll still be around in the years to come to continue railing against minorities, DEI, woke or whatever made up boogeyman they think is ruining games. They’ll keep going against representation, compassion and nuance. But now it is plain to see that they speak for a cultural demographic that barely exists, an angry, pitiful sub-group of people with little market relevance. I think we all instinctively knew that a future in which games don’t expand in matters of theme, make plays for new audiences and effectively diversify is a moribund one.
There can and should be an end to decisions made of cowardice masquerading as caution, all of which have failed to prove that going woke means going broke. The worst things in gaming are traced largely to people who get their views from a platform where people are paid to make racist posts by the world’s wealthiest white supremacist. There, they let half-demented bots lie to them about what voters and consumers believe. The midterm elections represent a massive recalibration. In order to engage with that, the games industry needs to disentangle itself from dead markets, dying bubbles and all the extra irrelevancies in between.
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.
RELATED STORY: Nintendo Switch Online and eShop now available in the Philippines