A new Steam page founded on January 29, 2024, called Sweet Baby Inc Detected has seen its followers swell to 102,807 at the time of writing. The bulk of those following happened in the last few days. The page is described as “a tracker for games involved with Sweet Baby Inc”. After digesting information for several hours from both sides, I think it is time for me to speak.
Like many of you, I had never heard of or cared about Sweet Baby Inc. until it suddenly started appearing on my X-trending list. The first thing I did was head to their website to understand what kind of services they offered.
The company was founded in 2018 and describes itself as “a narrative development and consultation studio”. Although based in Montreal, their impressive portfolio shows they have worked with several game companies across the globe.
The company said its mission “is to tell better, more empathetic stories while diversifying and enriching the video games industry”. Also, they said their aim is “to make games more engaging, more fun, more meaningful, and more inclusive, for everyone”. Those sounded like clear and exciting visions I will support any day.
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However, the narrative is that Sweet Baby Inc. is ruining the video game experience by forcing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on video game makers. In other words, they put inclusion and diversity ahead of a good story.
YouTuber YoungRippa59 also claimed that Sweet Baby Inc. often pressures companies to get them involved in their project to avoid getting a backlash. So, companies sort of pay them off to avoid negative social media comments—without Sweet Baby Inc. doing anything to make sure the games from these companies are truly diverse and inclusive.
Sweet Baby Inc. was at the center of criticism because of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Many content creators claimed that games made in collaboration with the company were doomed to be worse than they would have been. A TikToker with the user TheTruthGuy18f made a short video with images of two allegedly Sweet Baby employees he claimed wrote Suicide Squad.
The big question that many are asking is, if Sweet Baby has nothing to hide, why are they angry that someone has created a curator page that showcases all their works? They should be proud of their work, right? The company’s employee, Maya Felix Kramer, who goes by the handle @legobutts on X also claimed that they don’t have a problem with curators.
this is also not even a dig at steam tbh, it’s just the state of the audience right now and the way social media works – this might sound wild but i dont necessarily have anything against having lists or curators for games you don’t want to play (say with trigger warnings etc!) https://t.co/hixxjgSimO
— felix at home (@legobutts) February 29, 2024
Trouble started when employees of Sweet Baby Inc. tried to cancel the new Steam page
While Sweet Baby Inc. Detected has been in existence since January, trouble started on February 29 when an employee of Sweet Baby Inc. called out the new Steam page and its creator on X and asked people to report them for spreading misinformation.
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“The @Steam curator group Sweet Baby Inc detected is lead by this person, @kabrutusrambo,” wrote Chris Kindred, a narrative designer with Sweet Baby Inc. “Here’s them trying to be slick so they don’t get reported. Even with the discriminatory language filed off, the group itself still fails the code of conduct.”
Kindred was not alone in the call for people to report the new Steam curator page. Kramer also called out the curator and Steam for not having a guideline for curators.
“For example, @Steam doesn’t have guidelines for curators (as far as I can tell) that would prevent someone from starting a curation group that focuses on, say, @SweetBabyInc and… warns people to not buy games they’re associated with?” wrote @legobutts. “Which could just list any game at all??”
One thing was clear, trying to rally people to report the new Steam curator page turned out to be a bad PR. It achieved the opposite of what they wanted. The followers of the page swelled tremendously after that call. From just over 9,000 followers when the call was made, the page’s followers have swelled to over 100,000—and counting. The ban call served as an advert for the page and helped it grow its followers.
The employee side of the story
No loyal employee would love it when you talk bad against the company that puts food on their table—except they were already in a bad relationship with their employer. As I expected, more Sweet Baby Inc. employees have spoken up against the new Steam curator page.
On the discussion session of Sweet Baby Inc. detected’s Steam page, a post from a user TiYan who identified as a salaried staff member of Sweet Baby in a low-to-moderately important role left a lenghty message describing how “weirdly toxic” the new Steam page was.
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“First: Sweet Baby Incorporated is a PRIVATELY funded organization in WHOLE,” TiYan wrote, trying to provide clarity on how Sweet Baby operates. “Second: We are solicited for service by companies who are requesting our services. We do NOT solicit or use “tactics” of any kind to increase clientele.”
“Third: Any advice, narrative, writing, representation, development, etc – is provided EXACTLY or as close to exact as the company demands as per the contract. We do not go “above and beyond” to “ruin” “your” game… We perform a specific service and are rewarded monetarily. This is called a company.”
Kramer also slammed those who blame diversity as the reason for video game layoffs as the same people who don’t recognize Miles Morales as Spider-Man. The employee also insinuated that diversity companies are being targeted by those who don’t want them to exist.
anyway. remember that these people do exist – and while ignoring it goes a very long way, boosting those you know are affected and targeted is the other side of it that needs to also happen. not even sweet baby! just everyone existing that they are angry at for existing. iykyk.
— felix at home (@legobutts) February 29, 2024
The other side of the story
After reading the side of the new Steam curator page and the side of employees from Sweet Baby Inc., I think the reason why Sweet Baby employees are angry is not that a Steam curator page has been created for their works but because the curator also marks their games as “Not Recommended”.
If for any reason, their website includes posters of a plethora of games they have worked on including a comment on how they were involved in the game. For example, Sweet Baby Inc. mentioned they worked on Alan Wake II’s character arc, voice, and sensitivity reading. They also mentioned they worked on Spider-Man 2 story consultation.
Sweet Baby Inc. Detected is a mischievous curator page because they only included games that performed poorly, in a commercial sense, on their curated list leaving out successful games like Spider-Man 2, God of War Ragnarök, and Alan Wake II which Sweet Baby was also a part of in one way or another.
What the page has done is take half-truth and make it the entire story—and many people have fallen for it. Well, I am not the least surprised because we live in an era where hate and negativity sell. The new Steam page simply made it look like any game Sweet Baby touches fails—which is not true.
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In fact, the narrative that the page is pushing has made me the more believe that this is about killing the progress that has been made in diversity and inclusion in video games. Interestingly, those who are against diversity are often the same people who push for LGBTQ acceptance. What an irony! It just hits as if this is a battle against Black representation in video games.
But does this absolve Sweet Baby Inc. and its employees of any wrongdoing? Absolutely not! I read an account of a former employee who called out Kramer for toxic behavior. Although I cannot independently verify all the claims made in the email correspondence, other people have also called out Kramer for other infractions.
Btw this account, @legobutts, is the biggest of the Cancel Pigs, was Zoe Quinn’s PR person, and tried and failed to cancel me many times.
I’m not surprised they ended up at Sweet Baby Inc.
LegoButts sat on twitter for months and worked to get a lot of people banned from Twitter… https://t.co/qNl1krlmWh
— Grummz (@Grummz) March 1, 2024
Mark Kern, a former team lead for World of Warcraft called out Kramer for previously trying to “cancel” him. Kern even shared a screenshot where he alleged that Kramer “admitted to illegally DDOS-ing a charity event that was trying to promote women indie devs”.
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Here is Sweet Baby Inc.'s employee, @legobutts admitting to illegally DDOS ing a charity event that was trying to promote women indie devs.
This is who Sweet Baby inc likes to hire: pic.twitter.com/8uQKROFcLe
— Grummz (@Grummz) March 1, 2024
Previous tweets made by Kramer dating back to 2014 were also dug up and had messages that contrast what Sweet Baby claims to stand for.
What I see in all of this controversy is one person who is clearly annoyed with a company for a reason best known to them and another person who is working in a place that they should not be, based on their beliefs.
