Diversity and Innovation: The Effects of Diverse Creator Teams on Video Game Characteristics and Sales

I analyze the effects of gender diversity on video game production teams. I hypothesize teams with greater gender diversity produce more games with uncommon characteristics than less diverse teams, and the games these teams develop generate higher revenue and unit sales compared to games developed by less diverse teams. I find teams with more women disproportionately develop games that are non-violent and have playable female leads. I examine whether there is an optimal ratio of women to hire for each game genre in order to maximize revenue by analyzing the relationship between the percentage of women on a team in each genre and total revenue. While I do see evidence of firms over- or under-hiring women in some genres before 2001, it appears for the most part firms have optimized their hiring practices in regards to gender diversity from 2001 onward