Stereotypes still plague games industry, says SCEE

Stereotypes still plague the gaming industry, and SCEE has said it feels that the new Change4Life ads help feed such negative reactions to gamers as a whole.

Speaking with MCV, UK managing director Ray Maguire explained his initial reaction to these adverts.

"I must admit that when I first saw the Change4Life ‘PlayStation’ ad I felt exactly the same way as everyone else", he said. "How could this happen? How could the Department of Health and the charities, the ad agency, all get this so wrong?

"It was sloppy marketing to say the least and typical of what we have come to expect from certain quarters when it comes to our stereotype."

Maguire said he thinks that marketing departments will do what ever they can to get their point across.

"Clearly, the ad targeted many people’s paranoia, the kind that is often amplified by media such as the Daily Mail," he said.

"But anyone who knows anything about games, which is half the population these days, will have immediately dismissed the ad as irrelevant. The other half, who don’t play games, would have immediately accepted the stereotype.

"The industry has changed more in the past five years than in the previous 15, but the general public’s image of this industry has hardly changed at all."

More of the interview through here.