Nearly all white French studio makes predictable diverse protagonist for ESA collab game Aphelion that flops on Steam

This collage meme is split into three sections: the top section is a group photograph of a nearly entirely white French game development studio team posing outside a building, labeled 'THE STUDIO' in white and red text. The bottom half has two side-by-side images of the protagonist from their game *Aphelion*, a Black woman, first shown wearing an ESA (European Space Agency) branded spacesuit, and second shown without headwear facing directly forward. This bottom section is labeled 'THE GAME PROTAGONIST' in white and red text. The meme critiques the studio for picking what it calls a 'predictable' diverse protagonist as a performative diversity choice, and notes that despite millions in development spend and a collaboration with the European Space Agency, the game only reached a peak of 219 concurrent players on Steam at launch, indicating widespread audience disinterest.

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THE STUDIO; THE GAME PROTAGONIST

Overview

This collage meme is split into three sections: the top section is a group photograph of a nearly entirely white French game development studio team posing outside a building, labeled 'THE STUDIO' in white and red text. The bottom half has two side-by-side images of the protagonist from their game Aphelion, a Black woman, first shown wearing an ESA (European Space Agency) branded spacesuit, and second shown without headwear facing directly forward. This bottom section is labeled 'THE GAME PROTAGONIST' in white and red text. The meme critiques the studio for picking what it calls a 'predictable' diverse protagonist as a performative diversity choice, and notes that despite millions in development spend and a collaboration with the European Space Agency, the game only reached a peak of 219 concurrent players on Steam at launch, indicating widespread audience disinterest.

Origin notes

This meme was first posted to the social platform 9Gag, referencing the 2024 launch of the space-themed game Aphelion, developed by a French game studio in partnership with the European Space Agency. The post is critical of the common modern media trend of game studios selecting lead characters that fit standard diversity checkboxes for marketing purposes rather than creating characters that fit the narrative naturally, which many consumers see as inauthentic and which has been linked to poor sales and player engagement for many recent media products.

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