EA Boss On The Importance Of Diversity And Inclusion

EA's chief studios officer Laura Miele has shared new details on the company's ambition to be a more inclusive and diverse company, and why that will help the outfit to make the best games.

Speaking to GI.biz, Miele shared that EA has created a new set of internal guidelines called the "Inclusion Framework" that studios use to help make more inclusive characters and stories. Miele pointed to Kim Hunter, the fictional female hero of the FIFA story mode in recent years, as an example of a development team creating a game with the aim of helping to appeal to a wider audience than before.

"We want to make games for everyone, and our games and characters must be as diverse as the communities we serve," Miele said. "One way we enable that is our Inclusion Framework, a set of filters designed to challenge our thinking and help our studios develop more inclusive characters and stories across our games. A great example of this is FIFA. The team has adopted the framework and completes a diversity assessment every year. It enabled the FIFA team to ensure Kim Hunter was a unique and truly authentic character and a gaming first--the first female playable hero in a sports story."

Miele went on to say that EA is implementing changes across the board to help promote diversity and inclusion. "More diverse teams lead to greater creativity. So we will continue to drive changes across recruitment, career development, company culture, our communities, and the gaming industry as a whole," she said.

The full interview is a great read that touches on numerous other topics--go read it here at GI.biz. Miele has been with EA for more than 13 years, most recently rising to the role of chief studios officer in 2018.

Miele was among the EA executives who gave up their cash bonuses and instead put them into a cash pool to pay developers bonuses.

EA recently held its EA Play Live 2020 show, and it included the surprise announcement of Skate 4 and many other new games and projects. For more, check out GameSpot's roundup of all the big news.