GaymerX is a gathering for fans of gaming that often feel marginalized and underrepresented. While you may consider that a wonderful and necessary thing, the event’s future is uncertain, and that has some in the independent-gaming scene scrambling to help.
Hotline Miami publisher Devolver Digital revealed today that it is pledging $3,000 to sponsor next year’s GaymerX. After Devolver challenged others to do the same, Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell and Tinsley PR (which represents Devolver) both matched that contribution with their own sponsorships of $3,000 each. This comes after Danganronpa publisher NIS America sent a note to GaymerX revealing that it won’t fulfill its previously promised $3,000 sponsorship for the convention that took place earlier this month in San Francisco. In response, the inclusive organization took to social media to accuse NIS of trying to “bully” its way out of its agreement.
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NIS agreed to sponsor GaymerX’s VIP party and open bar, but in a letter the company informed organizer Matt Conn that it wouldn’t “be able to fulfill the co-sponsorship deal.”
“To me, this isn’t about the money, this is about standing up against bullies,” Conn tweeted. “I don’t care about the money, $3,000 is nothing in the scheme of life. That’s a month of pay. The big deal is a company is bullying us. They’re bullying us because they think they can get away with it, and I wanna show the world that you can’t get away with bullying queer geeks.”
We’ve reached out to GaymerX and NIS America for comment, but the two companies are holding off on providing any official statements because they are meeting today to see if they can figure out a deal. Since his original tweets, Conn has gone on to say that he still likes NIS America and its games.
We pledge $3,000 for a 2015 @GaymerX sponsorship and challenge other game companies that have the means to do the same.
— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) July 29, 2014
GaymerX’s first event was in 2013, and the company believed that it would have to wrap things up after the 2014 event.
“It’s difficult to get face time with the right people required to get sponsorship,” GaymerX president Toni Rocca told GamesBeat in an interview earlier this month at the event. “If it wasn’t for the awesome folks at Riot Games and at Mailchimp, I can tell you that GaymerX may not have happened at all.”
While NIS pulled out, Riot, Mailchimp, and a number of other companies did honor their pledge. That includes Mass Effect developer BioWare, BioShock publisher 2K Games, and Assassin’s Creed publisher Ubisoft. While that may seem respectable, Rocca noted that the industry at large did not seem interested in getting involved with GaymerX.
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Devolver’s, Tinsley’s, and Bithell’s contributions may represent that the industry wants to support something like GaymerX. That $9,000 will make a dent, but the San Francisco event costs GaymerX $90,000 to operate, so it still has a long way to go to ensure the inclusive conference returns for a third year.