Things haven’t gone so well with Red Candle Games’ Devotion. Since its release earlier this month, the Taiwanese game was criticized by China for apparently mocking Chinese president Xi Jinping. That quickly led to a massive review bombing of the game on Steam that quickly spread to the first game in the series, Detention. And today, in an announcement, the game has been pulled from Steam.
For those not in the know, Chinese president Xi Jinping earned derisive comparisons to Winnie The Pooh in an effort to secretly criticize/mock him by those Chinese residents critical of the president. This quickly lead to images of Winnie The Pooh being banned in China (seriously). And seeing as Taiwan is under Chinese control (despite their efforts to seek more independence), you can see where this is going.
Devotion features several Easter Eggs that make reference to Pooh, as well as a reference referring to an individual who has received a prison sentence nicknamed “baozi” or “steamed bun”. This is another sensitive reference to the Chinese president.
“For the earlier sensitive art material incident, the whole team of Red Candle Games bears the responsibility of this awfully unprofessional mistake. It is not Red Candle’s vision to secretly project extensive ideology, nor is it to attack any person in the real world. Even if the sensitive art element was wrongfully placed before, we kindly ask you not to over interpret other game material,” the studio wrote.
Needless to say, that apology wasn’t good enough for those in power, as the studio’s official Weibo account (the Chinese equivalent to Facebook) has been shut down, and its relationships with publishers Indievent and Winking Entertainment have been terminated. This essentially leaves Red Candle with the responsibility of issuing refunds for the game should anyone seek them.
No word on when (or if) the game will return in a censored form to Steam.
