The gaming industry could see more Latino creators thanks to a new initiative to increase Hispanic representation.
Why it matters: Gaming is a $187 billion global industry that has attracted interest from major companies like Netflix and Disney in recent years.
- The critically acclaimed and hit shows “Fallout” and “The Last of Us” are adaptations of popular video games and have also brought on new players in a sign of how far-reaching the gaming industry is.
Zoom in: The Latino Representation in Gaming Coalition, launched this month, is a collaborative effort between several Hispanic advocacy organizations and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who’s also been pushing for more Latino representation in news and Hollywood.
- It aims to help develop a clearer pipeline for Latinos interested in gaming to get industry jobs, especially at the leadership level.
- The coalition also seeks to promote more Latino characters and storylines in gaming content and to have more recent data on the demographics of video game characters.
By the numbers: About 72% of video game developers identify as white alone, while about 7% identify as Hispanic or Latino, per the most recent report from the International Game Developers Association, a nonprofit that surveyed gaming professionals mostly from the U.S. and Canada.
- Hispanic adults make up the second-largest ethnic/racial group (19%) of people in the U.S. who reported having played video games at least one hour a week this year, according to trade group Entertainment Software Association data.
- In 2009 — the last year for which there is such data — a USC Annenberg report found less than 3% of video game characters were Latino.
What they’re saying: Alejandro Marín Vidal, a consultant in the industry who spent years at Activision Blizzard, says a lack of diverse voices “can make content feel stagnant or reflective of biases.”
- Marín points out that things have improved in the past decade. When he was at Activision, he co-created an employee resource group for Hispanic workers, which started out with about five people, and when he left the company last year, there were about 500 members, he says.
- “But a lot of those jobs are entry-level, with lower pay and lower opportunities for career development,” he adds.
Cris Amaya, president and co-founder of Latinx in Gaming, says the new coalition could provide a light at the end of the tunnel especially given recent layoffs in the industry.
- “The biggest gap that we face is the lack of funding and resources available to us Latines/Latinx folks,” Amaya says.
- “Being able to move the needle with the help of government representatives … helps really elevate the seriousness of the work we do within our own communities,” Amaya adds.
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