ESA scholarships promote diversity in the game industry

Helping bring more diversity to the game industry, the Entertainment Software Association Foundation has awarded 30 scholarships to women and minority students aspiring to become game developers. A number of developers have previously commented that the Western game industry is too homogeneous and dominated by white men. They've argued that developers and publishers need to attract a more diverse pool of people in order to bring new perspectives to the game-making process, and appeal to new audiences. Anna Anthropy (Dys4ia) recently described the typical game-making cycle as "Straight white developers make games that straight white reviewers market to straight white players, who may eventually be recruited to become the new straight white developers and reviewers." The ESA Foundation's scholarships help promote the idea of bringing more people with different backgrounds to the industry. It's given each of the 30 recipients -- which include graduating high school seniors and college students -- $3,000 toward a degree that will prepare them for entering the entertainment software industry. The recipients are pursuing degrees in a wide range of areas relevant to the game industry, such as graphic design, computer science, animation, programming, digital entertainment, and software engineering. You can see the full list of scholarship recipients here.