You’re missing the point of what I said. Concord and Dustborn did not try to send a message, they tried to get the profits they thought would come from associating with the message, and implemented it horribly. This is not activism. That would be like saying Instagram changing their logo to rainbow for a month is activism.
As for true activism, video games are both entertainment and an art form. Saying to “leave that shit at home” is missing the point of artistic mediums in their entirety.
You’re telling me that a bland and generic Overwatch clone with character designs that were reductive to the groups they were supposed to represent failed because of activists? The games you listed didn’t fail because of activism, they failed because their “activism” was a marketing stunt instead of being actually progressive. There are plenty of games developed by people that care about those issues where they’re represented accurately and appropriately. Those games usually do well and win awards. Making a game where you meaninglessly and inaccurately pander to minority groups is not the result of activism, it’s trying to leech off of actual activism.
You would have to jump through a lot of hoops to conclude that activism makes you a bad game developer. If they’re exploiting their customers constantly to try to increase profit margins, they are more than likely exploiting their workers, who they have much more control over.
It’s because of their shitty horrible business practices, nobody wants to pay $100 for a rushed game and nobody wants to invest time into their 500th live service game that they’ll stop supporting in a year.
There are plenty of record breaking games that have released while the industry has been “filled with activists.” Many of them are even about politics, like Helldivers 2.
I think it’s a valid criticism that should be welcomed. You could make this argument for any company when they make a bad decision.
“Oh well you trusted this company blindly so why are you upset and criticizing this design choice you don’t agree with.”
I also am not convinced a criticism is less meaningful if it’s the minority opinion. Many such cases in the world where the minority opinion is proven to be better for the majority.