Approximately two years ago, Devotion, a Taiwanese first-person psychological horror video game, becomes available for purchase digitally after being pulled from Steam due to a controversy regarding Chinese Community Party Leader, Xi Jinping.
The news comes from developer, Red Candle Games, releasing a tweet, saying that its e-shop is now online, which also includes their previous game, Detention. Opening up their own e-shop seems to be their solution after the incident on Steam.
Released on February 19, 2019, Devotion, the game was incredibly well-received, scoring 85/100 on Metacritic, and even being added to Harvard-Yenching Library, the largest collection of East Asian works in an American university.
However, the game’s “Overwhelming Positive” reviews was short-lived, as players discovered a controversial Easter egg in the game. The Easter egg was in the form of a fulu talisman containing the words “習近平小熊維尼,” which translates to “Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh.”
This is a reference to the internet meme that compared Xi Jinping to the Winnie the Pooh Disney character. The Easter egg also contained other words, which translated to “your mother is a moron.” Together, Chinese gamers interpreted this as an insult to their leader.
The game was quickly review bombed on Steam, prompting Red Candle Games to patch it out. However, several other parts of the game were examined and interpreted as insults to China, leading to the game being removed from Steam in China just four days after the game’s release.
Publishers Indievent and Winking Skywalker also cut ties with Red Candle Games, with the latter being liable for their losses. In response, Red Candle Games removed the game from Steam altogether to fix the issues.
Since then, the game’s release remained uncertain, with GOG.com announcing that they would release the game on their platform, but eventually reversing that decision, resulting in plenty of gamers angry.
Now, Red Candle Games is acting as its own publisher, releasing Devotion and their previous game, Detention (as well as all their future releases), on their website. You can view their website and purchase their games here. Hats off to Red Candle Games for their persistence and dedication to the art.
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