Life is Strange: True Colors, Square Enix didn't want it to be labeled as a gay game

IGN published a long report on the Deck Nine development studio, which contains numerous testimonies about the studio's malfunctions, as well as the statement that Square Enix he was reluctant to accept the themes of Life is Strange: True Colorsbecause he didn't want it to be labeled as a game for gays. Paradoxically, a picture also emerges from which the studio that created one of the mainstream games considered to be the most inclusive of all appears to be a toxic and problematic work environment.

Life is strange

The first Life is Strange, essentially a narrative adventure, was developed by Dontnod and launched in episodic form in 2015. The same studio also developed Life is Strange 2, published in 2018. Deck Nine entered the series by publishing in 2017 the prequel Life is Strange: Before the Storm, to then be entrusted with the new standalone episode, Life is Strange: True Colors, released in 2021.

It should be underlined that all the games in the series, some more, some less, have had excellent critical response, a sign of their undoubted quality. True Colors tells the story of Alex, a girl who has the power to feel and absorb the feelings of those around her. It is a decidedly successful title, as written in our review, perhaps one of the best among those with a queer girl as the protagonist.

Precisely the nature of the protagonist seems to have been a problem for Square Enix, according to what was reported by IGN, with the publisher who carefully kept an eye on her film scripttelling the developers that he didn't want it to be seen as a gay game.

Deck Nine representatives, responding to what emerged from the IGN report, stated that: “Storytelling is a collaborative process, and we work closely with all our partners during development to offer a narrative experience faithful to the pillars of a product we can all be proud of. As is often the case in the creative process, some ideas make it into the final version, while others do not. We remain committed to supporting diversity and telling the stories of groups historically underrepresented in video games.”

It is difficult not to read between the lines that the pressure actually existed, even if it is impossible to say how much it influenced the final work and in what terms.

As for Deck Nine, recently hit by many layoffs, the description of the working environment in the report is decidedly negative, between toxic behavior of senior members and lack of interventions by the management to stem them, between weeks of forced crunch, due to unrealistic deadlines, and the appearance of racist and Nazi simobili and memes in a new Life is Strange project.