Reports that narrative consultancy Sweet Baby Inc. is involved in Sony/Insomniac Games’ PS5-exclusive ‘Marvel’s Wolverine’ have sparked discussion on 5ch’s “Hardware/Industry (Geha)” board. According to the reports, the in-game “X-Men” will be rebranded as “Team X,” dropping the word “Men,” and posters noted that the news has fueled backlash on overseas forums. Thread commenters were split on why companies keep signing with Sweet Baby Inc. despite the known backlash — some pointed to funding pressures or reputation management, while others dismissed it as exaggeration from critics.
Guess Sony's still pulling this stuff, huh.
Even the die-hard Sony fanboys ("Goki," a derogatory nickname for PlayStation loyalists) were pushing back when this broke — there's the Spider-Man 2 precedent too.
"Insomniac is dropping the word 'Men' from the X-Men name in its upcoming Wolverine game, rebranding the iconic mutants as Team X.
Sweet Baby Inc. is reported to be involved with this game.
According to Insomniac Games creative director Marcus Smith, there are no X-Men in the world of the upcoming Marvel's Wolverine.
Instead, players will encounter a group of mutants called Team X.
The announcement has drawn immediate online backlash, especially given reports that narrative consulting firm Sweet Baby Inc. is involved in the project."
https://geeksandgamers.com/insomniacs-wolverine-game-drops-men-from-x-men-name-following-reported-sweet-baby-inc-involvement/
Sounds rough.
Got cut loose over stuff like this, and now he's catching harassment from PlayStation fans on top of it…
Called it.
Knew it'd be garbage.
Sony's still going all-in on it…
Sony Interactive Entertainment's really doing it, huh.
For starters, most overseas companies are perpetually in the red, so they can't keep the business running on their own money alone…
If you're churning out garbage while calling it AAA, then the whole AAA business model is just broken.
Same goes for cinematic-style games — what worked 20 years ago doesn't necessarily fly today.
They used to, but after trying the same move on a Chinese manufacturer and getting hit with public pushback that exposed them,
it looks like now they only deal with companies that fall in line quietly.
Genuinely curious about that thought process.
Once you've got money, the next thing you want is prestige.
In America, pushing political correctness is an easy shortcut to earning that prestige.
That's the mechanism behind why big, top-down companies gravitate toward it.
That's not what I mean — with this much criticism and hatred coming at them from every direction, how do they mentally convert that into "everyone actually accepts us"?
If political correctness tanks sales and sinks the company, I'd think that'd leave a black mark on their résumé though.
Some kind of cushy post-retirement landing spot?
Or do you get burned at the stake by political-correctness backlash if you don't sponsor them?
Forget Horizon, something might've already been going on as far back as the Last of Us DLC.
Honestly it felt way too sudden.
They've half sold their souls at this point.
Maybe in return, [Sweet Baby Inc.] leans on mid-tier outlets to help pump up the Metascore or something.
But even the big publishers seem to be getting sick of political correctness now — good sign.
Games don't need any of that.
Thought Spider-Man 2 had shaken that off, but under the hood it's packed with a gay storyline and political correctness everywhere.
So yeah, this is just business as usual for them.
Miles has been around for over 10 years and is genuinely popular, so that part on its own is normal.
Nike and the apparel industry have been course-correcting, and yet Sony's still stuck in it — guess that explains it.
The faithful and "ponies" (another mocking nickname for PlayStation fans) can never bring themselves to criticize Sony, so the political correctness just keeps rolling on lol
Easy fix
just chalk every criticism up to smear campaigns from "buta" ("pigs," a mocking nickname for rival-console fans) and problem solved lol
I'm asking this seriously though —
you really think Sweet Baby Inc. is out there calling people "pigs"?
A company that reaches into culture well beyond just games?
It's a mindset Japanese people don't really share, but if you don't show "consideration," political-correctness groups will tear you to shreds.
So they pay Sweet Baby Inc. a ton of money for "consulting" (lol) just to get their stamp of approval, basically.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Since around 2023, Sweet Baby Inc. has been a divisive presence in the overseas game industry as a firm offering “politically correct”-style narrative consulting. Titles reported to involve the company tend to draw concentrated criticism, and this Wolverine story is an extension of that pattern. That said, it’s worth noting that the cited source, geeksandgamers.com, leans toward industry-critical commentary and is not an official statement from Sony or Insomniac. In the thread, theories about why a company would sign on despite risking a sales hit — ranging from funding needs to investor pressure to score-boosting tactics — were floated, but none of them are confirmed by the parties involved. At the same time, casting Black superheroes has a long history of its own, from Falcon (1969) to Miles Morales (2011), and the article doesn’t make clear that diverse casting itself is a separate issue from the criticism of this particular consulting involvement.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “[Sad News] Sony’s PS5 Wolverine Sponsored by Sweet Baby Inc. wwwwwwwww.”
