Epic CEO is Anti-Loot Box, and Anti-Politics

The DICE Summit is happening now, and the keynote speaker for the first day was none other than Epic CEO and guy with opinions Tim Sweeney. And he decided to use this opportunity to address the two biggest problems currently plaguing the games industry, by his estimation: loot boxes… and politics?

Here’s what he had to say about the former:

"We have to ask ourselves, as an industry, what we want to be when we grow up? Do we want to be like Las Vegas, with slot machines ... or do we want to be widely respected as creators of products that customers can trust? I think we will see more and more publishers move away from loot boxes. We should be very reticent in creating an experience where the outcome can be influenced by spending money. Loot boxes play on all the mechanics of gambling except for the ability to get more money out in the end."

That’s a very dangerous question, considering if you asked EA or Activision they’d probably say “yes” to growing up into Las Vegas. Hell, Konami’s already basically doing that. But while I think most everyone can agree that loot boxes need to be toned down, what he had to say in regard to politics is a bit more eye-catching:
 

“The world is really screwed up right now. Right now our political orientations determine which fast-food chicken restaurant you go to? And that’s really dumb. There’s no reason to drag divisive topics like that into gaming at all… A company is a group of people who get together to accomplish a mission that is larger than what any one person can do. And a company’s mission is a holy thing to it, right? Epic’s mission is to build great technology and great games. And we can count on every employee at Epic — we can even demand every employee at Epic unite behind that mission. But every other matter we have to respect their personal opinions. And they may differ from management’s or each other’s or whatever.”

…Right. You can understand why that line of thinking may be a bit flawed, considering going out of your way to be apolitical is still a political statement vouching for the status quo, which not everyone likes because, as Mr. Sweeney aptly pointed out, the world is really screwed up right now.

He did take to Twitter to clarify his position a bit more, though:

Here’s one of the key views I shared at DICE. If a game tackles politics, as To Kill a Mockingbird did as a novel, it should come from the heart of creatives and not from marketing departments seeking to capitalize on division.

…Sure. Fine. Agreeable enough. Now are we going to talk about crunch periods, Mr. Sweeney?