Exclusive interview with Sweet Baby Inc. detected creator: ‘My community is way more diverse than any one of those outlets’
Read our exclusive interview with Sweet Baby Inc. detected creator Kabrutus about the sudden popularity of his Steam group and the ensuing fallout
A Steam Curator group called ‘Sweet Baby Inc. detected’ became the center of controversy earlier this month, and kickstarted a heated (and often ugly) debate between gamers and gaming journalists.
But who is right? The Shortcut reached out to both Sweet Baby Inc. and the head of the curator group to get some answers. The crux of the issue lies in the involvement of Sweet Baby Inc., a narrative consultation company that focuses on “diversifying and enriching the games industry”.
Some people believe Sweet Baby Inc. has negatively impacted established franchises by shoehorning in diversity, while others argue that the decisions made are long overdue and should be celebrated.
Whatever your stance may be, we spoke exclusively to the creator of ‘Sweet Baby Inc detected’ – a Brazilian man who goes by the alias Kabrutus – to hear his thoughts on how the story has been covered by the gaming media, dealing with bad actors on both sides of the debate, and how diversity should be tackled moving forward in video games.
The Shortcut: Your Steam Curator group, ‘Sweet Baby Inc. detected’ has surpassed over 300,000 followers. How does that make you feel?
Kabrutus: Great, it makes me feel great, to say the least. It shows that there are a lot of gamers all over the world who care about this issue. I’m very proud of the community that originated from the curator group and the amazing people I’ve had the opportunity to meet since then.
The Shortcut: The group has caused quite a debate among gaming journalists and within the industry itself. In your own words, why did you create Sweet Baby Inc. detected?
Kabrutus: Basically, to let people know if a game has any kind of involvement with Sweet Baby Inc., nothing more than this.
The Shortcut: Several outlets have covered the story but failed to mention that a Sweet Baby Inc. employee tried to get the group taken down and your personal Steam account banned. The Sweet Baby Inc. Wikipedia page also doesn’t include this context. Why do you think that’s the case?
Kabrutus: Because this doesn't help their narrative. They want to gaslight people into believing that me and the members of my awesome community are a bunch of... you know, bigots – let's put it that way – and they don't mind lying to achieve that goal.
The Shortcut: What do you say to the people who believe that listing the games Sweet Baby Inc. has worked on is racist, sexist, or other sweeping terms? And can you understand why some people might have reached that conclusion?
Kabrutus: I want to say that they are wrong. My community is way more diverse than any one of those outlets, I'm 100% sure of that. We have blacks, whites, Asians, browns, gays, trans, leftists, and right-wingers from all around the world. Hell, we even have some Brazilians too!
“My community is way more diverse than any one of those outlets, I'm 100% sure of that.”
The only way I could see someone thinking that this is true is if the person was indoctrinated by some kind of agenda or someone who believes these outlets and doesn't know much about the gaming industry.
The Shortcut: Some Sweet Baby Inc. detected group members have allegedly sent hateful and abusive messages to games journalists who have defended Sweet Baby Inc.’s work. Are these people part of your group or merely trolls latching onto the controversy?
Kabrutus: I made a post on X to make it very clear that I do not endorse this kind of behavior. The truth is on our side, and that’s all we need. Of course, maybe some members of my community see what I say and simply do not agree with that and then proceed to make this kind of stuff, but I have yet to see any tangible proof of this. The last one proved to be sent by a Kotaku journalist’s second account directly to herself [Editor’s note: allegedly]. I'll keep doing my best to avoid this kind of situation from happening again.
Oh, and just to point out: asking questions isn't harassment nor is not wanting to buy a game because some company has worked on it.
The Shortcut: A video game journalist allegedly ‘infiltrated’ your Discord group and shared that it was a place that was harboring hate speech and bad actors. Was the group free to join without an invite and how is the Discord group being moderated to combat this?
Kabrutus: Wait, hold on a second. Are you saying that a journalist infiltrated a public Discord server that has an open invite link for everyone?! Damn, this journalist must be even better than James Bond himself! Congratulations!
My Discord server has moderators who constantly look for ways to implement scripts and automative ways to filter this kind of stuff and also ban people who insist on doing this. We all do the best we can to prevent this from happening over there and we'll keep doing it.
The Shortcut: A recent article highlighted that you haven’t played all the games Sweet Baby Inc. listed in the group yourself. Do you think this is something that is required seeing that you’re responsible for curating this list? Or is it perhaps beneficial that you haven’t as this is just a list, free from your personal opinion?
Kabrutus: Yeah, I haven’t played them because I have better things to do with my free time, for example, playing good games, you know? Aside from that, my list doesn't have the purpose of reviewing and/or analyzing a game, just to inform people if the game has involvement with Sweet Baby Inc.
“Diversity is good when done properly, like in Gears of War, a game I always like to use as an example.”
The Shortcut: Do you believe diversity is an important factor in video games? What would you specifically like to see and how do you think it should be addressed?
Kabrutus: I mean, I'm perfectly fine if a game has a diverse cast of characters or not, it will depend on what kind of story it tells. For example, one of my favorite movies of all time is The Thing, directed by John Carpenter. There are zero female characters in this movie and it wasn't an issue because it works in that context.
Diversity is good when done properly, like in Gears of War, a game I always like to use as an example. Delta Squad was formed by a black guy, a Latin guy, and two average white Americans. There were also Asian and female characters like Minh (R.I.P.) and Anya. Street Fighter is also one of my all-time favorite franchises. I don't even need to say how diverse the cast of characters is and has always been.
I would like to see diversity being addressed naturally, in a way that makes sense – it’s as simple as that. Companies like Sweet Baby Inc. should start building new franchises and grow an audience of their own instead of trying to convert other well-established audiences into liking what they believe people should like.
The Shortcut: Are there any games that Sweet Baby Inc. has worked on that you enjoyed? If so, which ones?
Kabrutus: No. To be honest, the only game (until now, at least) that they’ve been involved with and that I'm aware of is South of Midnight. I was interested in this game because It features stop-motion animation, which is something I’ve liked ever since I was young.
I also think the Voodoo theme is very different and refreshing, but now I expect the game to have a really bad narrative with lots of political agenda in it, so yeah... I'm not that excited about it anymore.
The Shortcut: What do you think of past comments from Sweet Baby Inc.’s CEO to “terrify” marketing teams if they “don’t give you what you want” (in regards to hiring diversity consultants), or the ex-employee who said they only hired people of color while working on a previous game?
Kabrutus: The fact that she makes speeches telling people to blackmail their marketing teams – because that's what it is, right? Let's be clear here – says a lot about her and how her mind works. It's pure authoritarianism.
“The hypocrisy in all of this is what really gets me.”
And about that woman who only hired people of color... Hmm, I think it's fine if they do that, you know? It's their team, they have the right to do it. [Editor’s note: according to US employment opportunity laws, it is illegal to discriminate against someone because of that person’s race or color.]
However, I wonder how they would react if someone came out and said “Hey, I have hired a team made entirely of white people because I believe that it will create a safe environment for people who just want to build a game they love”. The hypocrisy in all of this is what really gets me.
The Shortcut: Sweet Baby Inc. isn’t the only company that has been accused of forcing DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) or ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) into video games. Do you have any plans to highlight the work of other companies for those who would like to know?
Kabrutus: Yes, this is one of the main reasons I got the deidetected.com domain and right now the website is being built. It will take some time but I intend to include all those companies who work as DEI consultants – AKA political agenda consultants – and the games they work on. I'll update the Steam curator page after this too.
The Shortcut: What’s been the best thing to come out of the Sweet Baby Inc. detected Steam group fallout? And what’s been the worst?
Kabrutus: The best thing by far is the wonderful community that originated from the curator page, and also the amazing people that I’ve had the honor to talk to. Friendships are being formed, and we are growing more day by day. It's beautiful.
“The worst is, without doubt, these outlets calling me things that I never was and never will be.”
The worst is, without doubt, these outlets calling me things that I never was and never will be. Even my family is horrified by some of the stuff they’ve said about me, but I try to counteract it by telling the truth: no one cares about what they say, they are a bunch of liars and the vast majority of people see them as this.
The Shortcut: Finally, what are some of the games you’re looking forward to playing for the rest of the year, and will you avoid a game if you discover Sweet Baby Inc. is involved?
Kabrutus: Personally, my most anticipated game of this year is Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 – “FOR THE EMPEROR!”
But I'm also looking forward to Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, Sand Land, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and an indie game called Replaced that’s got my interest and there's a good chance it will come out this year.
And yeah, I intend to avoid Sweet Baby Inc. and other DEI companies’ games.