The tragic tale of Red Candle’s horror game Devotion only gets sadder. Originally pulled from stores after it was discovered to contain a joking comparison between Winnie The Pooh and Chinese president (and Winnie The Pooh lookalike) Xi Jinping. Now it appears it has cost its Chinese publisher everything. As shared via Twitter by Iain Garner of Another Indie and confirmed by PCGamesN, the Chinese government has revoked the business license of the game’s Chinese publisher Indievent.

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Taiwanese studio Red Candle Games had a very bad weekend. After the launch of their 80s-set horror game Devotion, players noticed a scrap of paper in-game which invokes the names of Chinese president Xi Jinping and Winnie The Pooh. Xi (who looks much like the cuddly cartoon bear) being a reasonable man able to take a mild joke, Winnie The Pooh and associated properties are restricted in China – see John Oliver’s breakdown here.

The reference in the game, however innocuous, sparked a review-bombing campaign against the game by aggrieved Chinese players. This led to an apology from the studio, followed their Chinese Weibo social media account being shut down, and the removal of the game from Steam in China. Now it’s just gone altogether, globally.

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There are few niches as specific as the one Red Candle Games have carved out with Detention and its successor Devotion, launched just yesterday. Both are sharp, unsettling but grounded horror stories that blend the supernatural with tales of real life in Taiwan in the not-too-distant past. While Detention was a side-scrolling adventure set in the 60s, Devotion is a first-person psychological study of a deeply religious family in the 80s. See the launch trailer below.

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By digging into the darkness of Taiwan’s past, Red Candle Games’ 2017 sleeper indie horror hit Detention managed to push some buttons that I didn’t know I had. If you haven’t given it a spin, go grab the deluxe edition on Steam, because you’re going to want that soundtrack. You know, for when you need terror to inspire you at the gym, or when you really need to speed-up your nightly jog. Building on the static-obsessed foundations of Detention, the follow-up title Devotion now has a trailer and a plot summary. It looks like Red Candle Games is going to stick to what they do best: teeth-grindingly upsetting history lessons.

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Hold your breath, close your eyes and hope that the lingering dead slip by without noticing you. Their tongues bulge from their mouths and they shudder between worlds. Detention [official site] is a side-scrolling point and click game, made by a small team of Taiwanese developers. It’s made up of puzzles and very occasional stealth sections, with no combat whatsoever. Despite a heavy dollop of Silent Hill, it’s a horror game unlike anything else I’ve played thanks to the smart use it makes of its historical setting. If you’re interested in thoughtful, fearsome games, don’t let this one slip by.

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