Kazuma Hashimoto, a former Sweet Baby consultant, has had trouble finding a job in the gaming industry because of his connection to the studio. In his story, he mentioned that employers are afraid of negativity from gamers if they hire him. Some of them express their fear directly, “Won’t they mock us for hiring you?”.

Hashimoto has previously worked with companies such as Ubisoft, Square Enix and Insomniac Games, and now writes articles for various gaming publications. He said that a situation in which reputation in front of players is more important than protecting an employee is extremely frustrating.

HR is literally saying, “Hey, aren’t we going to get bullied because we hired you?”. That really sucks. The employer or company rep signing you to a contract is going to be more concerned about their reputation with the players than protecting their employee. It’s just awful.

This problem became especially acute after his work on Assassin’s Creed Shadows, where he served as a consultant and translator. Hashimoto emphasized that consultants do not influence final decisions in game development – that’s the job of managers and producers.