"The needle is moving. I don't know if it's moving forward" | Black Voices Progress Report

22.02.2024 - 16:01 / gamesindustry.biz

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This interview is part of GamesIndustry.biz's Black Voices Progress Report, offering insight into the different experiences Black professionals have in the games sector. You can read more about the project and check out the other entries on this page .

Throughout this month, our Black Voices Progress Report interviews have aimed to both shine the spotlight on Black professionals in the games industry and their accomplishments, as well as exploring whether the needle is moving in terms of the industry diversifying and becoming more supportive for them.

On the latter point, marketing expert Akua Harris is very clear.

"I believe the needle is moving, I don't know if it's moving forward," she tells GamesIndustry.biz. "I think it did, but with all the layoffs for the past year, those tend to affect Black and Brown people more than everyone else, and I think that's what's happening too.

"During lockdown and COVID, the needle started to move in a progressive direction but I think now it feels like it's going backwards. It feels like two steps forward and three steps back, like we're just going back and forth for now. But I do think the pendulum will swing back to people being able to rediversify the industry, and I think that's going to come from a lot of the people who decided they're going to create something for themselves, or the amount of people who are freelancing.

"During lockdown and COVID, the needle started to move in a progressive direction but I think now it feels like it's going backwards"

"A lot of us are freelancing or starting our own small businesses, the game dev who are starting new studios instead of going somewhere else – people creating more things of their own is going to shift the landscape in general and make it more of an even playing field. If there's less competition for being at the big AAA brands vs building something communal for ourselves – that's what excites me for the next few years, seeing what people create coming out of this."

Harris' career began in advertising, having worked at a range of agencies such as R/GA, Wieden + Kennedy, and Essence Media. A self-described lifelong geek and gamer, she was delighted her career gave her the chance to work with multiple gaming brands, as well as non-gaming brands that wanted to target the gaming community. The more she was able to do, the more she pushed herself in that direction.

"Because I was considered the gaming expert of the agency, I was usually on any of those pitches," she explained.

"I actually started off in fashion, and I was like, 'This is terrible, I don't want to be in this industry any more.' I'd been trying to insert my passions [into my job]