It would be great if culture is shifting so much a AA (I think) studio can get positive publicity by dunking on woke/ESG/DEI stuff. That's actually huge.
I think what they're doing here is entirely strategic, realising that -- as you pointed out -- the winds of change are taking place, and ratcheting up ill-will amongst their core consumer base does them zero favours. Unlike the other big AAA studios, they can't just fall back on endless bi-annual releases of big-selling yet soulless slop.
It's a calculated move to garner some positive feedback and support for a company that's too big to ride on DEI as a no-name indie with the fallback option of being scooped up by a big publisher when their project fails, and too small to rely on an established franchise to coast on its revenue like Activision or Electronic Arts.
Yes and no. CI Games went through some difficult times and had some serious trouble with the development of the Lords of the Fallen follow-up: https://www.pcgamer.com/lords-of-the-fallen-2-studios-fall-out-over-quality-of-work-one-leaves-project/
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/around-30-people-laid-off-in-ci-games-final-round-of-job-cuts
I think what they're doing here is entirely strategic, realising that -- as you pointed out -- the winds of change are taking place, and ratcheting up ill-will amongst their core consumer base does them zero favours. Unlike the other big AAA studios, they can't just fall back on endless bi-annual releases of big-selling yet soulless slop.
It's a calculated move to garner some positive feedback and support for a company that's too big to ride on DEI as a no-name indie with the fallback option of being scooped up by a big publisher when their project fails, and too small to rely on an established franchise to coast on its revenue like Activision or Electronic Arts.