Red Candle Games, the first-person Taiwanese studio horror game Dedication was not available for sale following controversy over a reference to Chinese Prime Minister Xi Jinping, offered his games for sale in his own online store. Dedication and the studio’s first match Detention available without DRM.
Dedication was removed from Steam shortly after its launch in February 2019. The game was critically acclaimed for its atmosphere and originality, but drew controversy and negative user reviews after users noticed a poster in the game that roughly said, ‘Xi Jinping Winnie -the- Pooh idiot. “Xi is usually compared to Winnie the Pooh in online memes, which often fuel the anger of China’s online sensors.
At the time, Red Candle Games said it would be removed Dedication for technical and QA related reasons, and would also “review our game material again and make sure there is no other unintended material in it.” The game never returned to Steam, and Red Candle Games later apologized for the ‘serious art material bug’.
Dedication sparked new controversy in December 2020 when CD Project Red’s store window GOG withdrew from an agreement to sell the game hours after its announcement. “After receiving a lot of messages from gamers, we decided not to list the game in our store,” reads a statement from the store. “It’s a difficult problem to overcome, but we will not stop striving,” Red Candle Games said in response.
With the developer selling now Dedication for PC and Mac on its own terms, the availability of the game must be provisionally ensured. “We hope to provide a direct and easy purchasing channel for players interested in our games,” the studio said. tweet. It is not immediately clear whether the Xi reference has been removed.