Devotion, a horror game developed by a Taiwan-based development studio RedCandleGames for the PC, has been blocked in mainland China over the game purportedly containing insults towards Xi Jinping, President of China.
As it turns out, the Devotion had snuck in an Easter egg where players could stumble upon a talisman which contains a direct insult at Xi Jinping. The talisman contains characters in Hakka which when translated, roughly means “Xi Winnie the Pooh Moron.”
Seems like something fairly tongue in cheek for us outsiders, but gamers from China are not taking this lightly. Head over to Steam and you will see the game being review-bombed. Devotion is no longer available for purchase in China as you might expect. A boycott campaign has also been initiated by upset netizens over at Weibo.
In any case, the developer has issued an apology on Facebook and have removed said insults from the game. Indevient, the publisher for the game in mainland China, also came out to state that it has ended its relationship with RedCandleGames.
Here is the apology letter from the developer (in Traditional Chinese):
大家好,今天因為美術素材的風波,辜負了玩家朋友們長期以來對赤燭遊戲的支持與厚愛,謹代表赤燭遊戲,在這邊跟大家鄭重道歉。稍早為了能盡早在第一時間與大家說明,我們很倉促地發了一篇聲明,但很顯然地我們還有許多事情無法透過那簡短的文字交代清楚。…
Posted by 赤燭遊戲 - Red Candle Games on Saturday, February 23, 2019
Source: What’s On Weibo