“I Am only Concerned with Serving Customers Who have Their Hearts in the Right Place.”
Wiesbaden, Germany (23rd July) – Award-winning video games publisher Assemble Entertainment today published a statement from Founder and CEO Stefan Marcinek:
Hello, my name is Stefan Marcinek.
I co-founded Kalypso Media, left there a few years ago and founded Assemble Entertainment in 2016. We are an independent publisher and developer of computer and video games and organizer of the GDD GermanDevDays, a German-speaking developer conference.
I was born on April 01, 1977 – an April Fool’s joke that provided me with an uuuunbelievably amusing childhood – and I’ve been in the games industry since the late 1990s.
I get to work in an industry that is truly open-minded. An industry that accepts everyone just as he or she is. Which – in my opinion – represents the truly right values – both externally and internally, an industry with its heart in the right place.
I have been in a committed relationship since 2000 and happily (depending on whom you ask ^^) married since May 2019 (my husband is two years older than me).
I enjoy – even if I rarely get to play myself – computer and video games. Another thing I really enjoy, although I unfortunately have even less opportunity to get out and do so, is geocaching. I like Formula 1 races and pets. A dog would be great at some point but, back in the day, it was unanimously decided that we would get a cat. Talis is now 17 years old.
What I do not like are idiots or, to put it more bluntly, contemptible defecatory orifices!
If you are one of those people who can’t accept others because they don’t fit your worldview, because they are gay, lesbian, bi, trans or queer, who considers people with a different skin color, religion or ancestry than your own to be foreign or abnormal, who can’t stand them or even insults them, in what way ever, or who is incapable of respecting women and is violent; who votes for “parties” that are disgusting and inhuman, supports them, sympathizes with them or is active as a politician for them (yes, I’m referring especially to the AfD in Germany), then I want to make this perfectly clear:
I don’t want you as a customer!
I don’t want to see you at our events or conferences. Neither as a visitor nor as a speaker!
I don’t want to have anything at all to do with you!
If you are one of those people and are about to buy one of our games: Don’t!
If you bought one of our games and can still return it: Do so!
And if you are one of those experts who think “Then you’ll sell fewer games”, let me tell you a little secret: You are not the center of this universe or our bank balance. There are more than seven billion people in this world and therefore enough customers with their hearts in the right place and who are not just contemptible fecal defecatory orifices!
I am well aware of how harshly this statement may be received by some and that some may feel affronted, even though the statement may not be directed at them personally. However, I would like to use this statement to make perfectly clear how important moral and ethical values are to me in the management of my company – and how these should also be communicated to the outside world. Namely, openly and transparently – but, of course, also with the awareness that not everyone will like it. I would like to thank all our supporters, fans and all those who buy our games, play them and – even if not always – love them.
Thank you for your support!
Stefan Marcinek
Founder & CEO
Assemble Entertainment
July 2021