Yeah. Even just around a decade ago I’d explain the demographics shift to more women gamers to clients and they’d not believe it.

Stereotypes stick around for a long time, even when (or maybe especially when) untrue.

It’s a shame that “girl gamers” were considered such a rarity when it really seemed like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Oh, a game with only male protagonists with activities only primarily associated with boys doesn’t have many girls playing it? I guess girls aren’t that into games and we should double down on the focus on dudes.”

As a result, the market effectively abandoned around half of two generations of a potential continued audience and had a significantly reduced pool of interested labor to make games.

It’s a bit frustrating given my love for games that they could likely have advanced even further had it not been an exclusionary industry for as long as it was (though that can be said about pretty much every business vertical in existence too given our generalized collective history of exclusion).