Sony and Insomniac to donate $50K each to abortion rights group following Playstation CEO controversy

Insomniac Games, part of Sony’s PlayStation Studios, plans to donate $50,000 to the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (WRRAP) with the parent company matching their donation.

It comes days after Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO, Jim Ryan, reportedly sent an email asking staff to respect “differences of opinion” amid the Roe vs Wade controversy.

Ryan said the comments in a company-wide email, before launching into five paragraphs about his cats’ birthdays, as originally reported by Bloomberg, which were not well-received by employees.

Ted Price, CEO of Insomniac Games, made the announcement in an internal email to staff, stating that Sony would match the $50,000 amount, along with any individual donations Insomniac employees make through the PlayStation Cares program, according to the Washington Post.

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The report also states that Sony plans to offer financial assistance to employees in the United States that may have to travel to receive reproductive health care in the future.

Despite these donations, neither company plans to publicise them, with Insomniac staff being told not to explicitly mention Sony or the company’s involvement with WRRAP, in what is seen as a move to avoid taking a public stance on the abortion debate.

In response to a query about what would happen if Insomniac employees chose to share the news on social media, Ted Price’s email to staff reportedly stated that “there would be material repercussions for us as a wholly-owned subsidiary” and that the company would “probably be severely restricted from doing important public-facing work in the future.”

The company’s position stands in stark contrast with Bungie, another games studio that will also be owned by Sony in the near future.

Despite this, Sony has appeared to have shut that approach down with its current studios, with Ted Price reportedly telling staff: “[Sony Interactive Entertainment] will not approve ANY statements from any studio on the topic of reproductive rights. We fought hard for this and we did not win.”

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