The makers of Devotion as we speak mentioned they may re-release their really-quite-nice horror game sooner or later, if the controversy dies down, however Red Candle Games haven’t any plans for a re-release “in the near-term”. Devotion was pulled from sale after some Chinese gamers have been upset by it containing a forbidden meme evaluating Chinese president Xi Jinping to fictional honeyguzzler Winnie the Pooh, which has since led to that authorities cancelling its Chinese publisher’s business license. It is an effective’un so fingers crossed we’ll get one other probability to play it. And fingers crossed for the federal government retribution to finish, obvs.
Devotion, to remind you, is a first-person horror game from Taiwanese studio Red Candle Games, first launched in February 2019. It visits 1980s Taiwan to wander by way of a household’s house, the place issues simply ain’t proper. And it’s good, Khee Hoon Chan mentioned in our Devotion review. The drawback is that, at one level, one of many many talismans papering a wall insults Xi Jinping and compares him to Winnie the Pooh. This sparked a evaluation bomb on Steam from upset Chinese gamers. Red Candle rapidly patched the talisman out, however quickly they (or the publishers?) eliminated it from sale completely. And its Chinese publishers, Indievent, misplaced their enterprise license.
In a press release posted to Twitter as we speak, the builders apologise for “the art asset incident” which “caused immeasurable harm to Red Candle Games and our partner.” Before something, they are saying, they’re nonetheless coping with the aftermath.
“While mediation is still in progress, Red Candle’s co-founders have reached a unanimous decision not to re-release Devotion in the near term,” they mentioned. But after that, mmmaybe?
“As we reflect on the situation, we notice many players, industry friends, and the media are starting to understand that the incident was indeed a malfunction of project management, not a deliberate act. If, in the future, the public would be willing to view this game rationally and allow us the opportunity to rebuild trust with our players, Red Candle would reconsider re-releasing Devotion.”
That’s a fairly large and loosely-defined ‘if’. And one that might appear to be a good means away, provided that the Chinese authorities punishing Indievent has given the controversy a recent wave of consideration.
“It saddens us that the focus of the game has shifted drastically since the erroneous art asset was found,” Red Candle say. They insist that they’ve “absolutely no intent to stage a publicity stunt,” therefore the patch pulling it, however declare “some still possess different speculations about Devotion.”
It appears unlikely Devotion will get to be simply Devotion once more, seeing because it’s on the coronary heart of a number of layers of controversy from a number of views, but when extra individuals get to play it would shift or a minimum of increase the main focus. As Khee Hoon Chan mentioned, “In time, perhaps Devotion will be remembered for its distinction within the genre, rather than its association with a misplaced meme.”
