Insomniac Games Condemns Trump’s Immigration Ban As ‘Deplorable,’ Says Will Harm The Company
Insomniac Games, makers of game titles like Ratchet & Clank and Spyro the Dragon, has become the first major American company in our sector—animation/vfx/games—to publicly condemn a policy by the new American president.
The statement was delivered in the form of a Youtube video with the company’s founder and president, Ted Price, surrounded by dozens of his employees. (The company employs around 190 people.)
“We, at Insomniac Games, stand united in strongly opposing President Trump’s immigration ban,” Price said in the statement. “There’s no question that these orders will harm us as a company and many of our team members. So we ask, ‘Is this the American way? Is discriminating based on religious faith or national origin American?’ Absolutely not. This is a deplorable, discriminatory act that we and many others across the nation believe is patently unconstitutional.”
Insomniac joins major corporations like Coca-Cola, Nike, and Starbucks who have publicly spoken out about the ban.
The immigration ban is consistent with a pattern of discriminatory and racist statements made by Trump throughout his election campaign that targeted veterans, black, Latinx, Jewish, Muslim, and LGBTQ communities.
Other companies in the animation sector have yet to comment publicly on any of Trump’s policies, but anyone who works in a mid-size-to-large animation, vfx, or game studio understands that our industry is a huge melting pot that depends upon talent from every corner of the world. The point was expressed succinctly yesterday in a series of tweets by Pixar animator Cat Hicks:
Can't even begin tell you how much American animation studios like Pixar would struggle without the hard work of very talented immigrants.
— cat hicks (@cathicks) January 30, 2017
Immigrants and those with immigration backgrounds make up A LOT of the talent base for animation studios, big and small.
— cat hicks (@cathicks) January 30, 2017
You can't be the best studio in the world in the world unless you employee the best talent in the world. Keyword: world.
— cat hicks (@cathicks) January 30, 2017
I heard POTUS watched Finding Dory recently. I hope he saw all the names of the immigrants in the credits that make our US movies so great.
— cat hicks (@cathicks) January 30, 2017
