A high profile Final Fantasy XIV campaign from Square Enix and Twitch is receiving backlash for excluding BIPOC streamers. Teaming up with popular streamers and gaming influencers has proven to be a smart marketing tool for brands to reach young gamers, but a recent collaboration has been sparking anger from the gaming community for its lack of BIPOC creators. Starting at the end of this month until the end of August, players have the chance to receive new content in Final Fantasy XIV when they subscribe to specific Twitch channels or offer gift subscriptions. Video game company Square Enix curated a specific list of Final Fantasy XIV streamers participating in the campaign, which included English, French, German, Spanish, and Finnish-speaking streamers, and users pointed out that while it does include some gender and queer representation, there is a lack of BIPOC streamers overall. Popular Black streamer ReadySetBen said: “I mean absolutely no disrespect to any of these creators but we are definitely missing some BIPOC here,” while MiaByte, who is one of the participating streamers, also shared her disappointment and called for Square Enix to “amend the list with more diversity.” (Yahoo! News)
