PlayStation will supposedly donate to an abortion fund after CEO Jim Ryan commented on abortion rights in an internal email. Ryan asked employees to “respect differences of opinion” when it came to abortion rights after it was rumoured that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe vs. Wade which would re-criminalise abortion in the United States.
Ryan stated that “respect does not equal agreement but it is fundamental to who we are as a company and as a valued global brand”. Understandably, employees expressed their dissatisfaction with the tone of the email.
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Staff at Insomniac Games were especially angered over the messaging sent out by Ryan, who was planning to donate $50, 000 to the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project. The donation will reportedly be matched by Sony as well as any individual donations made by employees through the “PlayStation Cares” programme, according to an email sent by Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price.
Price has said that the Spider-Man developer has sent a “near 60-page” document to Hermen Hulst – the recently appointed PlayStation Studios boss – which called on PlayStation to “do better by employees who are directly affected” by this scenario.
Sony Interactive Entertainment is now supposedly planning to create a scheme alongside Insomniac Games which would provide financial assistance to employees who will need to travel out of their home state to receive any form of reproductive health care.
Price further stated though that PlayStation was still limiting all of its studios from publicly commenting on reproductive rights. Furthermore, should Insomniac Games go against the wishes of SIE that “there would be material repercussions for us as a wholly-owned subsidiary” it could result in Insomniac being “severely restricted from doing important public-facing work in the future”.
“[SIE] will not approve ANY statements from any studio on the topic of reproductive rights. We fought hard for this and we did not win.
As far as our freedom of speech goes, while we do have a LOT of autonomy that often gets taken for granted, there are times where we need to acknowledge we’re part of a larger organization. For the most part our ability to tweet has been unfettered. However there are rare times when we’re in opposition (like this week) and SIE will have the final say.”
Source: The Washington Post
