CD Projekt changed its mind about releasing the scandalous Devotion game in GOG — probably so as not to spoil relations with China
A year and a half ago, horror Devotion was at the center of a scandal in China, after which the game was removed from Steam. Yesterday, the developer studio Red Candle Games announced the re—release of the title, but already in the GOG store CD Projekt. It was only a few hours after the announcement that the Poles decided not to release Devotion. Perhaps it’s the successful Chinese sales of Cyberpunk 2077, which the company does not want to spoil.
Background
Last February, Red Candle Games studio released the psychological horror Devotion. The plot of the game was built around a Taiwanese family, in whose life a black streak has come. Throughout the story, the main character gets into different variations of his apartment, where he meets with excerpts from the past.
The game quickly received a lot of positive reviews on Steam, but just a week after the release it was removed from the store.
As it turned out, the Chinese authorities noticed a political joke in Devotion — on one of the virtual posters, President Xi Jinping (Xi Jinping) was compared to Winnie the Pooh. This character has been banned in China since 2018, and his image is considered extremely offensive.
The developers apologized for the incident and quickly removed all inappropriate content from Devotion, but this did not help to return the title to Steam. Moreover, in July 2019, the publisher of the game Indievent lost its license to work in China also, presumably, because of the scandal that occurred.
Restarting and canceling it
But yesterday Red Candle Games started talking about their project again. On Twitter, the studio announced that after a long lull, Devotion will finally appear again in the digital store. However, now the store is not Valve, but CD Projekt.
The developers promised to release the game in GOG at the same price and with the same content already on December 18. But the joy of fans of the Taiwanese title did not last long. Just a few hours later, the GOG administration announced that Devotion would not appear in their digital store. They say they received a lot of messages from gamers, which made them change their mind.
At the same time, the players themselves began to write in the comments under the GOG message that CD Projekt was pushed to this decision not by gamers at all, but by Chinese nationalists.
“You didn’t receive messages from players, you received them from sectarians from the Chinese Communist Party. Just say you’re bent over China. Don’t pretend that the reason is something else.”
Analyst Daniel Ahmad also spoke indirectly about the involvement of Chinese politicians.
Yesterday, he wrote about the successful sales of Cyberpunk 2077 in China, where he noted that the game still has not passed certification in China, and if the Chinese authorities are dissatisfied, it is unlikely that it will be able to pass it. In his material, he just compared the CD Projekt project with the remote Devotion, which once did not suit the government of the country.
However, immediately after the cancellation of the release of Devotion in GOG, Daniel stressed that his comparison of the two games was just a coincidence.
The Polish studio left such assumptions unanswered. Meanwhile, the developers from Red Candle Games assured that they understand and respect GOG’s decision, but will continue to strive for the re-release of their game.
