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.
UPDATE 10.44pm: As the controversy surrounding atmospheric horror title Devotion rumbles on, developer Red Candle has made the decision to remove the initially well-received game from Steam across all territories.
However, it appears the move is only temporary, with Red Candle's latest statement explaining that Devotion has been pulled, at least in part, to address "technical issues that cause unexpected crashes" and to have another "complete QA check".
"At the same time," the studio continues, "we'd like to take this opportunity to ease the heightened pressure in our community resulted from our previous Art Material Incident". It will also review all assets again, "making sure no other unintended materials was inserted in."
Steam's latest hit is being review-bombed for referencing a meme directed at China president Xi Jinping.
Devotion, a horror game developed by Taiwanese company Red Candle Games, had been going down a storm on Steam since its release this week, and saw a positive user reception based on thousands of glowing reviews.
But after the game was found to include a reference to the Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh meme, Chinese gamers launched a dramatic review-bomb campaign that left Devotion's user reviews rating as mostly negative.
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.