This is a list of video games considered controversial. The list includes games that have earned controversies for violence, sexual content, racism, and review bombing from fans. Some of the video games on this list have been banned or regionally censored.
Video game series
| Release dates | Series title | Platform | Primary developer/publisher | Reason(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984–2009 | Punch-Out!! | Arcades, NES, SNES, Wii | Nintendo, Next Level Games (2009 version) | Numerous instances of ethnic stereotyping, mainly of the opponent boxers that the player fights.[1][2][3] |
| 1992–present | Mortal Kombat | Arcade, PC, Consoles, Mobile devices, Stadia, Nintendo Switch | Midway (later Warner Bros. Interactive) | Blood, violence and gore. First fighter to introduce "Fatalities" to finish off opponents.[4][5][6][7][8][9] When released for home console formats, it became the first "big budget" game to raise the issue of violence in the medium. Possible catalyst to the implementation of a rating system such as ESRB. |
| 1996–present | Pokémon | Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Wii, WiiWare, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Nintendo Switch | Nintendo, Game Freak | Jynx, one of the series' titular creatures, came under heavy backlash following a 2000 article by Carole Boston Weatherford that accused its design of perpetrating blackface imagery.[10] The resulting controversy forced a drastic redesign of Jynx, changing its skin from black to purple and shrinking its eyes and mouth. The series was also attacked by fundamentalist Christian groups, who argued that it promoted Satanic themes. In response, the Vatican broadcast its public approval of Pokémon in April 2000, claiming that the game was based on "intense ties of friendship", and lacked "any harmful moral side effects."[11] |
| 1997–present | Grand Theft Auto | Android, Amazon Fire TV, Dreamcast, Fire OS, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, iOS, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, PS5, PSP, Shield Portable, Shield Tablet, Shield Android TV, Windows Phone, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | Rockstar Games (formerly DMA Design, now Rockstar North) (Take-Two Interactive) | Sexual themes, drug use, racism, nudity, foul and sexually explicit language, drunk driving, violence (against civilians, law enforcement members and military personnel). Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was originally rated "Mature" in the U.S., but was reviewed and re-rated "Adults Only" after controversy surrounding a fanmade Hot Coffee mod which unlocked a hidden sex scene (which was in the game's code, but left out of the final version). It was again re-rated "Mature" after Rockstar Games removed this scene from the game's code.[12] In Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, one mission features full frontal male nudity, while in Grand Theft Auto V, one mission sees the character Trevor Philips torturing another character in several different ways, including waterboarding, pulling out teeth, and administering electrical shocks to the nipples. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars featured a drug-dealing mini-game. |
| 1997–present | Postal | PC, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PS4 | Running with Scissors/Various | Violence and anti-law, most of which is committed against both civilians and government authorities, as well as racism, sexual themes, drug use, language, and animal cruelty.[7] Postal 2 was banned in Germany, New Zealand and Australia.[13] |
| 2003–2007 | Manhunt | PS2, PC, Xbox, Wii, PlayStation Portable | Rockstar Games (Rockstar North) (Take-Two Interactive) | Excessive violence and gore. Manhunt gained significant controversy after it was alleged that the game inspired a teenager to commit a murder. Banned in Australia.[citation needed] Manhunt 2 has been labeled as possibly the most violent video game ever made and is infamous for being one of only four video games to have received an "Adults Only" rating due to violence. Further controversy surrounds the Wii version, due to the fact that it actually simulates the violence through motion control, causing it to be dubbed a "murder simulator".[5][7][14] |
| 2007–present | Mass Effect | PS3, Xbox 360, PC, BlackBerry 10, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Wii U, PS4, Xbox One | BioWare/Microsoft Game Studios (later Electronic Arts) | Falsely accused by evangelical blogger Kevin McCullough of containing "rape and sodomy", which later led to the removal of McCullough's blog entry on Townhall.com. The game was featured on the Fox News Channel following the controversy,[15] with host Martha MacCallum, which included the headline "full graphic sex".[16] The game was briefly banned in Singapore due to the controversy.[17] While critically acclaimed overall, the ending of Mass Effect 3 was highly criticized as, among other issues, rendered all the decisions players had made in the trilogy, carried over through save files, moot, in contrast to marketing material BioWare had put forth for the game.[18] Due to a large reaction from the player base, BioWare released free downloadable content that provided a more cinematic ending sequence that addressed some of these concerns.[19] Other controversies included the release of Mass Effect 3: From Ashes as day-one paid DLC;[20] public outrage over the alleged link between the series' in-game combat violence to the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which was eventually debunked;[21][22] and the portrayal and representation of women as well as sexual minorities.[23][24][25][26][27][28] |
| 2011–present | Gal Gun | Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, PC | Inti-Creates | The Gal Gun series has been criticized by western critics due to allowing players to sexually exploit teenage girls. Inti-Creates was forced by Microsoft to censor the Xbox 360 version due to players being able to look up the girls' skirts, while the PlayStation 3 version remained completely uncensored.[29] The sequel, Gal Gun: Double Peace, which was released internationally, was banned in New Zealand for the same reason.[30] |
| 2018–2021 | Super Seducer | PC | Red Dahlia Interactive | Super Seducer was billed as "the world's most realistic seduction simulator". The player is taught by a pickup artist how to pick up women by going through multiple choice questions accompanied by video clips. The game came under fire by a number of left wing critics; one described it as the "world's sleaziest game",[31] and another criticized the game for "normalizing rape culture"[32] Prior to its release, the game had its crowdfunding campaign suspended by Kickstarter. According to its press release, this was due to "inappropriate content, including but not limited to offensive or pornographic material", and "spamming or abusive behavior, offering rewards in violation of Kickstarter's rules."[33][34] During release, the developer came under fire for ordering a DMCA takedown request against a YouTuber after he made a video critiquing the game.[35][36] Its release on PlayStation 4 was pulled by Sony shortly before it was due for release.[37] The original and second installments were blocked from release by Nintendo over explicit contents in 2021.[38] Despite releasing the first two installments, the third installment was pulled from Steam;[39] despite this, they allowed them to remain on their store.[40] |
1970s–1980s
| Release date | Title | Platform | Developer/Publisher | Reason(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Gotcha | Arcade | Atari | Controversial due to the controls being perceived as pink rubber bulges that were meant to represent breasts and were squeezed in order to control the action.[41] |
| 1976 | Death Race | Exidy | The object of the game is to run over stickmen "gremlins", who then scream and are replaced by tombstones, which for the time was seen as overtly violent.[4][42] | |
| 1982 | Custer's Revenge | Atari 2600 | American Multiple Industries | The game depicts a crudely rendered General Custer dodging arrows to reach a naked Native American woman tied to a post with the goal of sexually penetrating her to earn points. The game was protested as being racist, sexist, and promoting sexual violence.[4][5][6][43][44] |
| 1984 | Raid over Moscow | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, Plus/4, ZX Spectrum | Access Software | The game's premise, based on stopping a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the United States by bombing Soviet military bases, led to significant political controversy in Cold War Europe, being added to the BPjM index in West Germany, heavily restricting sales, and was deemed by the East German Stasi to be one of several games of "a particularly militaristic and inhumane nature".[45] In Finland, the distribution of the game was questioned by an MP of the Finnish People's Democratic League, leading to diplomatic protests from the Soviet Union.[46] |
| 1985 | International Karate | Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Commodore 16, MS-DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum | System 3 | Data East USA sued Epyx, the publisher of the game in the United States (under the name of World Karate Championship) due to similarities between International Karate and Data East's Karate Champ. Although the suit was dismissed,[47] Data East was successful in obtaining an injunction to prevent further sales of World Karate Championship, which was subsequently appealed and reversed.[48][49] |
| 1986 | 177 | NEC PC-8801 | dB-SOFT | A bishoujo game revolving around rape, it ignited a public furor that reached the National Diet of Japan.[50] |
| 1986 | Arkanoid | Arcade | Taito | Due to its resemblance to Super Breakout, the game instigated a lawsuit by Atari, Inc.[51] |
| 1986 | Chiller | Arcade, NES | Exidy | The game features scenes of torture chambers, graphic violence, and gore, which caused many arcade owners to avoid purchasing it in order to maintain a family-friendly image.[52] |
| 1986 | Twister | ZX Spectrum | System 3 | Originally titled Twister: Mother of Harlots but was renamed after a controversy regarding the title and sexualized promotion with skimpily dressed dancers at the PCM Show, an industry event.[53][54][55][56][57][58][59] |
| 1987 | Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior | Acorn Electron, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum | Palace Software | The cover art of the game, which featured bikini-clad Maria Whittaker, a model who was then associated with The Sun tabloid's Page Three topless photo shoots, and Michael Van Wijk, who was only wearing a loincloth, provoked outrage in the United Kingdom. Electron User magazine received letters from readers and religious bodies, who called the image "offensive and particularly insulting to women" and an "ugly pornographic advertisement".[60] Barbarian's violent content also sparked significant controversy and was banned in Germany by the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien because of it.[61] |
| 1987 | The Great Giana Sisters | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, C64, MSX2 | Rainbow Arts, U.S. Gold | Nintendo had objected to its close resemblance to Super Mario Bros.[62][63][64] Later games in the series such as Giana Sisters DS and Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams were officially released on Nintendo systems. |
| 1987 | Katakis | Amiga | Factor 5 | Activision Europe, who held the rights to R-Type, objected to the game's obvious similarity.[65] |
| 1988 | The Race Against Time | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | Codemasters | The original packaging had an image of American athlete Jesse Owens on its front cover. However, after the game had been released, Owens' estate objected. Codemasters had neglected to obtain permission from the family to use Owens' likeness, and they declined to grant permission retroactively. Therefore, Codemasters was forced to recall all of the copies of the game that had already been produced, and to change promotional materials. The company replaced the image of Owens with one of Carl Lewis, who had offered the use of his likeness for free.[66] |
| 1989 | Super Monaco GP | Arcade, Sega Genesis, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Gear, Master System, ZX Spectrum | Sega | Phillip Morris sued Sega (and some other video game companies, including Namco and Atari Games on behalf of their Final Lap game) because the arcade version of the game contains advertisements that resemble those for Marlboro cigarettes.[67][68] |
1990s
| Release date | Title | Platform | Developer/Publisher | Reason(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | J.B. Harold Murder Club | TurboGrafx-16 | NEC | Sexual themes, including a reference to an unsolved rape.[69] |
| 1992 | Wolfenstein 3D | DOS, SNES, 3DO, Atari Jaguar, Game Boy Advance, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS, Android | id Software | Violence, gore, Nazi symbolism, and the inclusion of Adolf Hitler as the final boss (this was particularly problematic to German distributors, who banned the sale of the game outright).[70] |
| 1992 | Night Trap | Sega CD | Digital Pictures, Sega | Violence, child abuse and sexual themes.[4][5][7] |
| 1992 | Freedom! | Apple II | MECC | Freedom! was modelled similarly to MECC's previous The Oregon Trail to be used as an educational software game to teach students about escaping as a slave along the Underground Railroad; the game was developed with an African-American consultant as to utilize language patterns of the time period, and intended to be used with in-class curriculum to augment the game. However, in practical use, most students played the game without guidance, leading to parents to demand the game be pulled due to perceived insensitivities the game took towards the plight of the slaves. MECC tried to work with concerned groups to address faults in the game, but ultimately pulled the game instead.[71] |
| 1993 | Fighter's History | Arcade, SNES | Data East | Capcom sued Data East in the United States and Japan on grounds of copyright infringements pertaining to Street Fighter II property. The U.S. case was ruled in favor of Data East (which argued Karate Champ was the true originator of the competitive fighting game genre), as the "copied" elements were excluded from copyright,[72] similar to Apple's graphical user interface lawsuit against Microsoft. |
| 1993 | Doom | PC, Atari Jaguar, SNES, 32X, 3DO, Sega Saturn, PS1, GBA, Xbox 360, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One | id Software | First-person violence, gore, and satanic themes.[4][6][7][8] Was once blamed for the Columbine High School massacre. |
| 1995 | Phantasmagoria | Microsoft Windows, MS-DOS, Sega Saturn | Sierra On-Line | The game's at-the-time relatively uncommon horror themes, featuring violence and sexual content (including a rape scene), sparked significant controversy. US computer retailer CompUSA announced that they would not stock the game.[73] The game was outright refused classification in Australia by the Office of Film and Literature Classification in September 1995.[74] |
| 1996 | SimCopter | PC | Maxis | A programmer named Jacques Servin introduced unauthorized "himbo" characters into the game, who would appear on certain dates and kiss.[75] |
| 1996 | Duke Nukem 3D | PC, Sega Saturn, PS1, PS3, PS Vita, PS4, Nintendo 64, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Android, iOS | 3D Realms | Violence, sexual themes, nudity [76][77] |
| 1996 | Tomb Raider | PC, Sega Saturn, PS1 | Eidos | An unauthorized software patch nicknamed "Nude Raider" was created by fans, which allowed players to play as a naked Lara Croft.[78] |
| 1996 | Battlecruiser 3000AD | PC | 3000 AD | The developers of this game claimed that neural networks could be used by the player to command objects and characters within the game to perform certain tasks using an AI feature, however, such a concept was nearly impossible for the technology standard of the mid-1990s and various players of the game claimed such a feature was not actually possible (which would be false advertising) and as a result of this controversy, years of heated debates about this validity of the topic took place in online forums, with over 70,000 documented entries taking one side of the debate or the other.[79] |
| 1997 | Carmageddon | PC, Mac, N64, iOS, PS1 | SCi, Interplay Entertainment | Violence against pedestrians[80] and animals. |
| 1997 | Formula 1 97 | PC, PS1 | Psygnosis | The game was withdrawn from shops six weeks after its release due to legal proceedings with the FIA (Formula One's governing body), which objected to the use of the FIA logo on the game's packaging. It was re-released without the logo, but the FIA were left unsatisfied. The FIA lost a court case however, and the game continued to be sold without the logo.[81] |
| 1998 | Thrill Kill | PS1 | Virgin Interactive | After Electronic Arts acquired the assets of Virgin Interactive in mid-1998, it quickly cancelled the release of Thrill Kill (which was due to be released in time for the holiday season) due to objections over the game's high level of violent content.[citation needed] |
| 1999 | Kingpin: Life of Crime | PC | Interplay Entertainment | Excessive violence, especially in light of the then-recent Columbine High School massacre which took place before the game's release.[82] Developer Xatrix implemented a "safe" mode which tones down the game's gore and bleeps out profanities in an effort to appease watchdog and parent groups. |
2000s
| Release date | Title | Platform | Developer/Publisher | Reason(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Dance Dance Revolution Solo | Arcade | Konami | In 2002, a local arcade in San Diego, California removed a Solo 2000 machine after members of the local "Youth Advocacy Coalition" complained that the background movies of selected songs contained images that could promote drug and alcohol abuse, such as a scantily clad nurse, pills in "I'm Alive", and alcoholic drinks appearing in "Club Tropicana". The machine was replaced by a mix which did not contain the imagery.[83] |
| 2000 | Daikatana | PC | Ion Storm | A highly controversial advertisement regarding John Romero's involvement with the game, which caused an equally highly publicized outrage; the game was also criticized for its perceived "low quality" and "outdated graphics".[84] |
| 2000 | Soldier of Fortune | PC, Dreamcast, PS2 | Raven Software, Activision | In 2000, after receiving a complaint from a member of the public about the explicit content of the game, the British Columbia Film Classification Office investigated and decided the violence, gore and acts of torture were not suitable for persons under 18 years of age. In a controversial decision, the game was labeled an "adult motion picture" and was rated as a pornographic film. In Germany, the game was placed on the Index List of the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons. |
| 2000 | Perfect Dark | N64, Xbox 360, Xbox One (Rare Replay) | Rare, Nintendo, Microsoft Studios (now Xbox Game Studios) | While the game itself was largely met with critical acclaim, some felt that it was inappropriate for Nintendo to be producing, as they had already established a lengthy reputation for being a family-friendly video game company at the time.[85] |
| 2001 | Conker's Bad Fur Day | N64, Xbox One (Rare Replay) | Rare, Nintendo, Microsoft Studios (now Xbox Game Studios) | Controversial for its "over-the-top" and "lewd" humor.[86] |
| 2001 | Tear Ring Saga | PS1 | Tirnanog | The game, whose development was spearheaded by Shouzou Kaga, the creator of the Fire Emblem series, was subject to legal actions both during and after development by Nintendo, which owned the Fire Emblem intellectual property (partly due to the game being released for a competitor console). However, Nintendo was ultimately unable to stop the development or the sales of the game. Initially titled Emblem Saga during development, the game's name and other features were later changed to remove all direct references to Fire Emblem.[87] |
| 2002 | Ethnic Cleansing | PC | Resistance Records | A game centered around the belief that acts of violence towards entire racial/religious groups is acceptable; Ethnic Cleansing is largely viewed in a negative light by the general public for its content. Groups such as the Anti-Defamation League have had congressional hearings over the game in the hopes that it is made illegal to possess or sell.[88] |
| 2002 | Kaboom! | Browser | fabolous999 | Players control a suicide bomber, the aim of the game being to kill as many people as possible.[89] |
| 2002 | State of Emergency | PC, PS2, Xbox | Rockstar Games (Take-Two Interactive), VIS Entertainment | Contains graphic gun violence, including political assassinations and coup d'états. Additionally, the game caused controversy in Washington due to the game's similarities to the World Trade Organization riots in Seattle.[90] |
| 2002 | Kakuto Chojin: Back Alley Brutal | Xbox | Dream Publishing, Microsoft Game Studios | The theme song for the Middle Eastern character Asad had Quran verses chanted in the background.[91][92] Kakuto Chojin is a fighting game and this song played in the background of Asad's stage, where Asad and other characters fight each other.[93][92] Senior geopolitical strategist Kate Edwards consulted with an Arabic speaker within Microsoft.[91] The Arabic speaker asked for Kakuto Chojin not to be released because the game's "incredible insult to Islam".[91] The game was released in North America anyway because the publisher though that the verses would not be noticed.[91] When the verses in the song were indeed noticed, Microsoft was pressured into destroying un-shipped units of Kakuto Chojin and recalling the game to remove the Quran verses from the song.[94] While this amended version of Kakuto Chojin was released, many uncensored copies still inadvertently made it to retailers in places where this kind of content is particularly sensitive.[94] One of those places was Saudi Arabia, a country where Islam is the state religion.[95] Kakuto Chojin made headline news and the Saudi Arabian government formally protested to Microsoft, forcing the full recall of the game worldwide.[91] |
| 2003 | Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball | Xbox | Tecmo | Many critics have commented that the game's use of female bodies is often ridiculous at best, and some have found it offensive.[96] |
| 2003 | Whiplash | PlayStation 2, Xbox | Crystal Dynamics | The game generated some controversy over the depiction of animal cruelty, mainly by the RSPCA.[citation needed] |
| 2003 | Laden VS USA | Panyu Gaming Electronic Co. | The game was based on the September 11 attacks and the packaging used a 9/11 photograph; two American stores banned the sale of the game outright and numerous American retailers refused to stock the game due to its perceived insensitivity.[97][98] | |
| 2004 | The Sims 2 | PC | Electronic Arts | A player-made mod allowed for the blur effect that appears when a character is nude to be removed. However, the nude Sims are featureless.[99] |
| 2004 | JFK Reloaded | PC | Traffic Games | The player is given the role of Lee Harvey Oswald as he assassinates U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The game was criticized for its controversial content matter in recreating the assassination, and was condemned by a spokesman for Senator Ted Kennedy as "despicable".[100] |
| 2004 | The Guy Game | PC, PlayStation 2 | Topheavy Studios/Gathering of Developers | An adult trivia game that treated winners to full motion videos of young women in bikinis. One of the women that was part of the footage was unaware that she would be appearing in the game, nor was said woman old enough to participate when the video was filmed. In the subsequent lawsuit against Topheavy, Gathering of Developers, Microsoft, and Sony, an injunction banned further sales of the game. Topheavy however, released an edited version (removing footage of the woman in question) that added new footage, and was later published as an interactive DVD title.[101] |
| 2004 | The Punisher | PC, PS2, Xbox | Volition | Interrogation, torture, intense gun fights, drugs, and indiscriminate killing. Originally merited an "Adults Only" rating before being edited on appeal.[102][103][104][105] |
| 2005 | Super Columbine Massacre RPG! | PC | Danny Ledonne | The game simulates the events of the Columbine High School massacre, having the player take on the roles of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and reenacting the massacre.[106][107][108][109] |
| 2005 | Gun | PC, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, Xbox 360 | Activision | The game's offensive depictions of American Indians prompted the Association for American Indian Development to call a boycott against the game.[110] |
| 2006 | Bully | PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, Wii, iOS, Android, Shield Android TV, Shield Tablet, Shield Portable | Rockstar Games (Rockstar Vancouver) (Take-Two Interactive) | Based upon its title, it was perceived that Bully glorified bullying. The fact that the main character, Jimmy, could also kiss another boy was a matter of controversy.[111] Classification boards generally restricted Bully to a teenage audience: the US-based Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) classified the game with a T rating,[112] the British Board of Film Classification gave it a 15 rating, the Australian Classification Board rated it M,[113] and the New Zealand OFLC restricted it to persons 13 years of age and over. In 2007, Yahoo! Games listed it as one of the top ten controversial games of all time.[114] |
| 2006 | The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion | Xbox 360, PC, PS3 | Bethesda Softworks | Re-rated to "Mature" by the ESRB after a third-party mod revealed a naked topless corpse hidden in the game's data files. While the corpse did not warrant a re-rating of the game in and of itself, upon review, the ESRB noted that the game contained much more explicit violence than had been submitted to them in the original rating submission.[115] |
| 2006 | Hitman: Blood Money | PC, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3 | IO Interactive | Excessive violence and assassinations; a magazine ad featured sexualized and violent imagery of a (fictional) dead woman in lingerie.[116] |
| 2006 | Mind Quiz | Nintendo DS, PSP | Ubisoft | Recalled in the United Kingdom due to use of the word "spastic", which is considered highly offensive in said country.[117] |
| 2006 | Left Behind: Eternal Forces | PC | Left Behind Games | Accusations that the game promoted religious "convert or kill" violence, sexism and racism.[118][119][120] Some reviewers denied that the game contained any truly controversial gameplay,[121] but instead took issue with the game's clumsy controls, in-game advertising and lackluster AI.[122] Ars Technica called it "a relatively harmless and well-done piece of propaganda".[123] |
| 2006 | Resistance: Fall of Man | PS3 | Insomniac Games | The Church of England objected to the game's use of Manchester Cathedral's interior as a backdrop during a gun battle, and called for the game to be withdrawn, or for the cathedral to at least be removed from the game.[124] |
| 2006 | RapeLay | PC | Illusion Soft | Rape is a core part of the gameplay, as the player takes on the role of a chikan who stalks - and subsequently assaults - a mother and her two underage daughters. Three years after its initial release, significant controversy was raised in the UK Parliament and elsewhere, and Equality Now eventually pressured its distributor to withdraw distribution of it in Japan.[125] |
| 2006 | Rule of Rose | PS2 | Punchline | The Mayor of Rome called for the game to be banned from Italy, saying children "have the right to be shielded from violence".[126] The then European Union justice and security commissioner wrote an open letter condemning the game for "obscene cruelty and brutality". An Italian magazine, Panorama, claimed that in order to win the game, players must bury a girl alive, which the game's European publisher disputed.[127] On the UK release day, the publisher announced that Rule of Rose would not be published in the UK, despite the game being approved for release by the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) and Video Standards Council regulatory bodies.[128] |
| 2007 | BioShock | Xbox 360, PC, PS3, iOS | 2K Games | An article in The Patriot Ledger, the local paper of developer Irrational Games,[129] argued that the game is "testing the limits of the ultra-violent gaming genre with a strategy that enables players to kill characters resembling young girls."[130] The game presents an ethical choice to players, whether to kill 'Little Sisters' for extra abilities or save them and receive less. President of 2K Boston Ken Levine defended the game as a piece of art, stating "we want to deal with challenging moral issues and if you want to do that, you have to go to some dark places".[131] Jack Thompson took issue with advertisements for the game appearing during WWE SmackDown's airtime, writing to the Federal Trade Commission and stating that M-rated games should not be advertised when large numbers of under-17s are watching.[132] |
| 2007 | Mario Party 8 | Wii | Nintendo | Use of the phrase "Turn the train spastic! Make this ticket tragic!" by the character Kamek caused controversy in the United Kingdom, where the word spastic is considered offensive (which is the same issue that Mind Quiz raised). This led to a recall of the game; it was later re-released with the word changed to erratic.[133] |
| 2008 | Spore | PC | Maxis | Spore's use and implementation of SecuROM digital rights management, including the game's activation policies, was subject to widespread criticism and lawsuits; the game was listed as the most pirated game of 2008.[134][135][136][137][138] |
| 2008 | Muslim Massacre | PC | Eric 'Sigvatr' Vaughn | The game's contents and subject have been the subject of strong negative response; a spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain said "The makers of this 'game' and the ISPs (Internet service providers) who are hosting it should be quite ashamed of themselves. Anti-Muslim prejudice is already on the increase and needs to be challenged and not reinforced through tasteless and offensive stunts like this."[139] |
| 2008 | Invaders! | Douglas Edric Stanley | An art game exhibited at the 2008 Games Convention in Leipzig. It represents the September 11 attacks in the style of Space Invaders. Players move their bodies to move the cannon, and use arm movements to fire.[140] Like the original Space Invaders, death (game over) is inevitable.[141] Many people considered it tasteless and inappropriate, and Taito threatened legal action for unauthorized use of Space Invaders content.[142] The creator later pulled the game.[142] | |
| 2008 | Silent Hill: Homecoming | PS3, PC, Xbox 360 | Double Helix Games | The game was initially banned and a rating refused in Australia and Germany for extreme violence and disturbing images, which included graphic sexuality, nudity, copious blood sprays, decapitations, partially dismembered corpses, and numerous scenes of attacks, fights, torture and death.[143] The Australian version was subsequently released with the MA15+ rating and censored graphics, while the Japanese release was cancelled altogether.[citation needed] |
| 2008 | LittleBigPlanet | PS3 | Media Molecule | Lyrics from a licensed song, "Tapha Niang", were removed due to fears that Muslims would be offended, on the basis that it allegedly contained words from the Quran. This led to controversy about the removal itself.[144] |
| 2008 | Too Human | Xbox 360 | Silicon Knights, Microsoft | The game was revealed to being developed using a stolen version of Unreal Engine 3, following a successful counter-suit by Epic Games (makers of the Unreal Engine), Silicon Knights having initially sued Epic Games for "breach of contract".[145][146] In November 2012, the counter-suit was ruled in favor of Epic Games, forcing Silicon Knights to recall and destroy all copies of the game, as well as another Unreal Engine-developed game, X-Men: Destiny, as well as cancelling other titles that had been planned to use the engine.[147][148] |
| 2008 | Limbo of the Lost | PC | Majestic Studios | The game's use of plagiarized assets from other games and movies prompted publishers, Tri Synergy, to stop publishing the game.[149] |
| 2009 | MadWorld | Wii | PlatinumGames, Sega | On August 19, 2008, Sega announced that MadWorld would not be released in Germany.[150] Despite the fact that Australia is also known for strict video game classification, the game was released there unedited, with an MA15+ rating for "strong bloody violence and strong coarse language".[151][152] In a preview, Eurogamer commented: "It's difficult to understand why there's so much controversy surrounding MadWorld when the violence is so very Tom and Jerry... It really is hard to be offended... because it's just so ridiculous."[153] On March 10, the National Institute on Media and the Family issued a press release expressing its disappointment in Nintendo for allowing MadWorld to be released on the Wii.[154] |
| 2009 | Resident Evil 5 | PS3, Xbox 360, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Shield Android TV, Shield Portable, Shield Tablet, Nintendo Switch | Capcom | The game came under controversy for a pre-release trailer that contains scenes of racism,[155] according to Newsweek journalist N'Gai Croal in an April 2008 interview. He also stated that organizations and retailers would object to the game, and that it would cause controversy upon release.[155] |
| 2009 | Saw | PS3, Xbox 360, PC | Konami | Several news publishings stated that the game's only purpose was to torture and kill people in violent ways with no sense of restraint or morality whatsoever. Some editorials called it "depraved and inhumane", and stated that "Konami should be ashamed".[156] It was also listed in the "Top ten most controversial games of 2009".[157] |
| 2009 | Left 4 Dead 2 | Xbox 360, PC (Steam) | Valve | The cover art in the UK had to be altered due to a potentially offensive hand gesture being depicted.[158] The game was initially banned in Australia for its excessive violence and gore, but the uncensored version was later rated R18+ in 2014.[159] The game's New Orleans setting so soon after Hurricane Katrina was considered "a bad call".[160] |
| 2009 | Fat Princess | PlayStation 3 PlayStation Portable | Titan Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment | Critics argued that the game concept and title were hostile to women.[161] |
| 2009 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | PS3, Xbox 360, PC, | Infinity Ward, Activision | An optional mission in the game entitled "No Russian" has the player assume control of an undercover Central Intelligence Agency operative, joining a group of Russian nationalist terrorists who perpetrate an airport massacre. The player is given the option to skip it at any point,[162][163] and a message before the campaign also warns players of the disturbing material. The game was discussed briefly in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom after the issue was brought to the attention of MP Keith Vaz, a longtime opponent of violence in video games, with fellow Labour Party politician Tom Watson arguing that the level was "no worse than scenes in many films and books" and criticising Vaz for "collaborating with the Daily Mail to create moral panic over the use of video games".[164] The mission was made optional before release[165] and removed from the game entirely.[166] Some countries have removed the mission in their versions of the game. Activision later removed the Favela multiplayer map from Modern Warfare 2 following complaints from Muslim gamers, which shows picture frames on the second floor bathroom of one building within Favela. When viewed through a scoped weapon, the frames contain a quote from Muhammad that translates to "Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty", according to Islam Today. One of the paintings is located directly above a toilet.[167] |
2010s
| Release date | Title | Platform | Developer/Publisher | Reason(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Medal of Honor | PS3, Xbox 360, PC | Danger Close Games, Electronic Arts (EA Digital Illusions CE) | The multiplayer mode created controversy when it was revealed that players could play as the Taliban.[168] The developers responded by stating that the reality of the game necessitated it, but due to pressure from various military officials and veterans organizations, the word "Taliban" was subsequently removed from the multiplayer part of the game in which players would directly play as the Taliban, instead replaced with the term "Opposing Force." However, even in light of this change, the game is still not to be sold on military bases. The AAFES Commander Maj. Gen. Bruce Casella said, "Out of respect to those touched by the ongoing, real-life events presented as a game, Exchanges will not be carrying this product." He continued, "I expect the military families who are authorized to shop the Exchange are aware, and understanding, of the decision not to carry this particular offering."[169][170] |
| 2010 | Six Days in Fallujah | PS3, Xbox 360, PC | Atomic Games, Highwire Games | A game to have been set during the Second Battle of Fallujah, Six Days was met with criticism by war veterans from the United Kingdom, as well as from a British pressure group, Stop the War Coalition.[171] The game was subsequently cancelled in 2010 by its original developers Atomic Games. In 2021, a new studio Highwire Games announced they were reviving the game, but had spoken to over 100 veterans of the battle to make sure it is an accurate depiction of the events.[172] |
| 2010 (start of development) | School Shooter: North American Tour 2012 | PC | Checkerboarded Studios | An uncompleted mod for Half-Life 2 hosted by Mod DB, School Shooter was condemned in the mainstream media and within industry publications for making a violent video game where the protagonist is a school shooter who kills defenseless targets.[173][174][175] In response to the controversy, Mod DB pulled the game from its website.[176] |
| 2011 | Bulletstorm | PS3, Xbox 360, PC | Electronic Arts | Fox News Channel called out the title as the "Worst Video Game in the World" due to the extreme amount of violence; claims made in the original article were dispelled by video game journalists, including Rock Paper Shotgun, but Fox News continues to assert that the game is too violent.[177] |
| 2011 | Portal 2 | PS3, Xbox 360, PC | Valve | CBS News has deemed the game offensive to adopted children, because the character Wheatley insults the protagonist by saying "Fatty fatty no parents". The daughter of the parents who reported this is, in fact, adopted.[178] |
| 2011 | Call of Juarez: The Cartel | PS3, Xbox 360, PC | Ubisoft | Residents of Ciudad Juárez and Mexico protested the announcement of the game, believing it to highlight the Juárez Cartel, who are believed to be responsible for over 3,000 homicides in the city in 2010.[179] |
| 2011 | We Dare | PS3, Wii | Ubisoft Milan | The game received a 12 rating by PEGI[citation needed], and a PG rating by the ACB[citation needed], implying that the game is suitable for children, despite Ubisoft marketing it as an "adult party game." This drew criticism for both rating boards considering the questionable content in the trailer for the game. Consequently, Ubisoft shelved plans for a North American[180] and UK release (despite it eventually releasing in the UK), while also blocking the trailer from being viewed on YouTube. |
| 2011 | Dead Island | PS3, Xbox 360, PC | Deep Silver | After a development build of the game was released on Steam by mistake, it was revealed that the skill 'Gender Wars' (which the character Purna uses) was called 'FeministWhorePurna' within the game's code. Developer Deep Silver apologised, and released a patch for the game to replace the offensive name.[181] |
| 2011 (start of development) | Star Citizen | PC | Cloud Imperium Games | A crowdfunded game, Star Citizen has attracted criticism for the constant, frequent delays of the game's release deadlines, while continuing to raise additional funds,[182][183] with the developers facing legal actions from Derek Smart[184] and Crytek,[185] as well as taking similar legal actions against critics of the development and funding practices associated with the game.[186][187] |
| 2012 | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | PS3, Xbox 360, PC (Steam) | Valve | In 2016, the game came under fire on the grounds of several players using third-party betting through the use of skin gambling, wherein players sell in-game cosmetics for real currency. This led to concerns of potential underage players participating in "skin gambling", which may lead to future gambling addictions, as well as the potential of match fixing within the game's competitive scene (see iBUYPOWER and NetcodeGuides.com match fixing scandal). Valve has since ordered a cease and desist against many Counter-Strike gambling websites.[188][189] The game also was denounced by consumer rights' organization Facua, who asked that ETA symbology would be removed prior to the game's release, alleging sensibility and respect to the memory of the victims and their relatives.[190] The game allows to emulate terrorists denominated "Separatists", who are depicted wearing white hoods and black berets, such as the ones worn by ETA during their communicates.[191] |
| 2012 | Medal of Honor: Warfighter | PS3, Xbox 360, PC | Danger Close Games | Several members of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) who worked as consultants for the game were disciplined for releasing classified information to the game's creators.[192][193] |
| 2012 | Street Fighter X Tekken | PS3, Xbox 360, PC, iOS, PlayStation Vita | Capcom, Dimps | It was revealed that the game's downloadable characters were already on the disc in a ready-to-unlock form, leading to heavy criticism.[194][195] |
| 2012 | Persona 4 Arena | PS3, Xbox 360 | Atlus, Arc System Works | The PlayStation 3 version of the game includes a regional lockout, allowing the game to be played only if the game's region matches the console region, despite the fact that PlayStation 3 games are normally region-free, leading to a massive fan outrage.[196][197] The game's sequel, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax however, is region-free.[198] |
| 2013 | Payday 2 | PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch | Overkill Software | Payday 2, while having featured a large array of downloadable content, had been claimed by its developers would never include microtransactions. However, a major game update released in October 2015 included rewards that required the player to use real-world money to purchase keys to unlock, and with rewards that may not be usable if the player did not buy certain pieces of downloadable content. Fans of the game reacted negatively to the change.[199] In May 2016, Overkill was able to acquire full rights to the Payday series, and among other announcements relating to the series, announced they would remove the microtransactions from Payday 2.[200] |
| 2013 | Tomb Raider | PS3, Xbox 360, PC | Crystal Dynamics | During an interview with Kotaku, executive producer Ron Rosenberg stated that one scene in the game depicts Lara Croft about to be sexually assaulted by a scavenger. She is forced to fight back and kill him in self-defense. Prior to the game's release, this quickly led to controversy concerning the possible "attempted rape" sequence. Studio manager Darrell Gallagher later denied this, stating that one of "the character defining moments for Lara in the game, which has incorrectly been referred to as an 'attempted rape' scene is the content we showed", where "Lara is forced to kill another human for the first time. In this particular selection, while there is a threatening undertone in the sequence and surrounding drama, it never goes any further than the scenes that we have already shown publicly. Sexual assault of any kind is categorically not a theme that we cover in this game."[201][202] |
| 2013 | Saints Row IV | Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC | Volition | Despite changes in the Australian Classification Board to adopt rules to use the R18+ rating for video games in January 2013, Saints Row IV was the first video game under these new rules to be denied classification, due to the presence of drug use and an in-game alien anal probe weapon.[203] Volition eliminated these elements from the game to obtain a MA15+ rating by removing the mission these elements were used in,[204] thus rendering the game's co-operative mode incompatible with versions from other countries.[205] |
| 2013 | The Stanley Parable | PC | Galactic Cafe | An in-game instructional video called "Choice" contained an image of a white man lighting a black child on fire.[206] |
| 2014 | South Park: The Stick of Truth | Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC | Obsidian Entertainment, South Park Digital Studios | The game was censored (by Ubisoft's decision) in Europe and Australia due to its depiction of an anal probing by aliens, and the player-character performing an abortion. In their place, the game displays either a still image of a statue holding its face in its hand, or a crying koala, with an explicit description of events depicted in the scene. The German version was specifically censored due to the use of Nazi- and Hitler-related imagery, including swastikas and Nazi salutes, which are prohibited under German law, outside of the context of "art or science, research or teaching".[207] The PC version remains completely uncut in Europe.[208] |
| 2015 | Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number | PC | Dennaton Games | The sequel, like the first Hotline Miami, incorporates a large amount of violence as the player sets to kill off agents of the local mafia, but a preview build for the sequel includes a scene that is set up wherein the player's character then appears to rape a female antagonist, though this is later presented in the context of being part of a staged movie scene. Journalists felt that even though the game made it clear of the scene's setup, the inclusion of this scene went too far in taste levels.[209] Despite some changes and assurances made by the developer, the scene in the game caused the Australian Classification Board to refuse to classify the game, effectively preventing legal sale of the title in that country.[210] |
| 2015 | Hatred | PC | Destructive Creations | A game about a suicidal mass murderer, in which the primary mechanic is about shooting innocent civilians in the murderer's fit of rage. The CEO behind Hatred has been accused of having neo-Nazi and anti-Islamic affiliations, due to liking some pages on Facebook related to such beliefs.[211] The title has been highly controversial, and when the developers attempted to place it on the Steam Greenlight service, it was pulled by Valve due to the game's content; however, it has been brought back onto Greenlight by Gabe Newell, who apologized for the removal.[212] The game was rated "Adults Only" (AO) by the ESRB, which prevents retail sales and its release on consoles, and would likely prevent its sale on digital storefronts for personal computers.[213] |
| 2015 | Playing History 2 - Slave Trade | PC | Serious Games | The game was created by Serious Games as an edutainment title to teach the user about slave trading. One game mode in the title was called "Slave Tetris", with the goal to try to fit as many African slaves on a boat as possible, using gameplay similar to Tetris; the developer had intended to show how inhumane the slave traders were, and how such trade boats were packed to capacity, stating "it really gets people to think about just how absurd and cruel it is". When the mode was discovered by a wider audience due to discounted sales of the game and Let's Play broadcasts of it, many critics expressed distaste for the mode, considering it to be highly insensitive. The developer pulled the mode from the game following this outrage.[214] |
| 2015 | Survival Island 3 | iOS and Android | NIL Entertainment | A first-person action game in which the white player-character has to fight and kill Indigenous Australians while destroying Australian fauna. After a Change.org petition, the game was pulled from the App Store and Google Play.[215] |
| 2015 | Pakistan Army Retribution | Android | A first-person shooter game, based upon the 2014 Peshawar school massacre. Developed as part of the Peaceful Pakistan peace campaign, the game allowed the player to control a soldier during the attack and kill Taliban terrorists. After a negative review on the website of newspaper DAWN, calling the game to be of "poor taste",[216] other people also expressed criticism.[217] The game was subsequently pulled from the Google Play Store in January 2016. | |
| 2016 | Overwatch | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One | Blizzard Entertainment | A team-based multiplayer shooter which includes a number of unique characters, and matches concluded with the winning character doing one of several possible victory poses that can be selected by the player. Some players found that the victory pose for one character (a young woman named Tracer who is also shown on the game's cover art) was overtly sexual, and reduced the character to a "bland female sex symbol".[218] Blizzard removed the offending pose, replacing it with a pin-up model-inspired pose.[219] |
| 2016 | Street Fighter V | PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows | Capcom, Dimps | An update for the PC version of the game released in September 2016 included a device driver named Capcom.sys, as a part of the game's anti-cheat measures, which was seen by players and security analysts as a rootkit. Capcom has since provided a rollback.[220] In 2017, an update which added M. Bison's classic Street Fighter II stage was taken down after fans noticed Islamic chants in what was actually a Buddhist temple.[221] A scene featuring the wrestler R. Mika slapping her butt as part of her Critical Art attack taunt was removed from the North American version of the game, as well as the entrance animation for Cammy. This caused debate in the community over whether or not the game was being censored.[222] Producer Yoshinori Ono clarified it was an internal decision to remove her taunt, and not due to response from the community."[223] |
| 2016 | Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear | Microsoft Windows | Beamdog | Siege of Dragonspear is an expansion atop Beamdog's Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, itself a remastering of the original 1998 game, providing a narrative to explain events between Baldur's Gate and its sequel. Though the game was criticized by players on its release due to a number of software bugs, a controversy arose at what was perceived as a forced political agenda by the developers, in particular the inclusion of a transgender character.[224] |
| 2016 | Pokémon Go | iOS, Android | Niantic, Inc., Nintendo | Pokémon Go gained significant controversy after the game allegedly inspired criminals to commit robberies using the augmented reality feature. CNN reported that the geolocation feature was used for robbers to find and capture victims.[225] There have been several deaths that occurred while playing the game, such as the death of a Japanese woman who was hit by a driver who was playing the game.[226] In 2017, Jiansheng Chen, a Chinese-American grandfather, was shot and killed by a security guard while playing the game.[227] |
| 2016 | No Man's Sky | Playstation 4, Microsoft Windows | Hello Games | No Man's Sky started significant controversy due to its state upon release and how this differed significantly with marketing statements made by the developers. Both critics and fans cited the many bugs and game-breaking glitches present alongside missing content and features not implemented despite marketing material mentioning or claiming those features would be available at launch.[228] |
| 2016 | Persona 5 | PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 | Atlus | Within the game's dialog includes scenes between Ryuji, a high school student, and two other effeminate men. Many fans of the series and critics commented poorly on these scenes as the characters were a stereotypical presentation of overly-sexualized gay men, and appeared to be inappropriate attempts at creating a sexual relationship between them and Ryuji as a minor.[229] Due to these complaints, Atlus announced for release of the expanded content in Persona 5 Royal, released in Japan in 2019 and in Western regions in 2020, that they would alter these scenes with updated lines "for the current generation".[230] |
| 2017 | Fight of Gods | Microsoft Windows | PQube | Fight of Gods was designed as a satirical fighting game between various religious and mythical gods or godlike figures. In September 2017, after Jesus was added as a playable character, the government of Malaysia considered the game "blasphemous", demanded Valve remove the game from Steam, and had its ISPs temporarily block the country's access to Steam. Valve eventually blocked sales of the game in Malaysia, allowing the service to be restored in the country.[231][232] |
| 2017 | Star Wars Battlefront II | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One | Electronic Arts | In November 2017, the game received unfavorable critical attention when its loot box monetization scheme during its open beta period was revealed, which many felt was a "pay-to-win" scheme, since some loot box rewards directly influenced multiplayer gameplay. Electronic Arts revisited the loot box approach prior to launch to address those concerns.[233] Just before the game's full launch, it was revealed that many of the playable heroes in the game would be locked until the player had earned enough in-game credits over time, or spent money on microtransactions to unlock them faster, further raising player criticism. Electronic Arts attempted to justify the change on the game's subforum at Reddit, but it was met with outrage, making that comment the most down-voted Reddit post of all time.[234] Hours before the game's release, EA temporarily disabled all microtransactions for the game to review concerns by players, and to rework the in-currency systems after launch.[235] |
| 2018 | Standoff | Microsoft Windows | Revived Games | Originally titled Active Shooter, the game was developed by Revived Games, and was published by Acid Games in June 2018 on Steam. The game presented a first-person shooter based on a fictional school shooting scenario, with the game's description stating that the player can choose to be the SWAT team member to take down the suspects, or the students firing on the school. The game, which appeared on Steam shortly following the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February 2018, came under criticism from students, parents, and politicians, directing concern towards the developers, publisher, and Valve for trying to profit off an emotional distressing situation.[236] Before the game could be released, Valve pulled the game and the developer from Steam, citing prior issues with "asset reuse" games by the developer and manipulation of Steam reviews.[237] |
| 2018 | Agony | PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch | Madmind Studio | A dark fantasy survival horror video game that puts players into the perspective of a tormented soul within the depths of Hell, devoid of any memories whatsoever about its past. The special ability to control people on their path, and possess weak-minded demons, gives players the necessary measures to survive in the extreme conditions they are in.[238] Agony is infamous for being one of only four games to have received the "Adults Only" rating from ESRB due to violence and other extreme graphic content (including gay and lesbian sex scenes and genital physics), following The Punisher, Manhunt 2, and Hatred. The game was re-rated "Mature" after the developers agreed to tone down the violence, which also led to PEGI rating the game 18. A planned "Adults Only" unrated patch for PC was later dropped due to "legal issues".[239] However, on June 6, 2018, the developers said they were "talking with Steam representatives" about offering Agony Unrated as "a separate title produced and published by Madmind Studio and without the involvement of any publishers." For those who already own the original game, this version will be either free DLC or a separate purchase at 99% off, which currently is the highest possible discount on Steam's platform.[240] After announcing the financial problems of the company and canceling the Unrated version of the game, the basic game docked on August 1, 2018, with a considerable amount of updates on the platforms on which it debuted.[241] |
| 2018 | Bolsomito 2K18 | PC | BS Studios | Bolsomito 2K18, a brawler game where the player fights "the evils of communism", and "the growing corruption and inversion of values that plagues [sic] his society", according to its description, while in-game, this is represented as attacking women, minorities, and LGBTQ persons. The game was released on Steam two days prior to the October 2018 Brazilian general election, where one of the candidates in the election was Jair Bolsonaro, thus inspiring the game's name. Bolsonaro was considered a far-right candidate in the election, and led after the first round of voting. The Brazilian Public Ministry of the Federal District and Territories has opened an investigation on both Valve and BS Studios, stating that the game and its close release to the elections "clearly intends to harm [the] Presidency of the Republic and thereby embarrass the 2018 elections", and "cause collective moral damages to the movements social, gays and feminists".[242][243] |
| 2018 | Assassin's Creed Odyssey | PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Stadia | Ubisoft | The main storyline in Assassin's Creed Odyssey features the ability to select one of two playable characters, the male Alexios or the female Kassandra, and gave players the ability to interact with non-player characters in various romance options, including gay relationships; this feature was stressed by Ubisoft in its promotional material for the game, given that they did not want to force the player into any specific relationship. In the finale of the game's downloadable content, Legacy of the First Blade, the player character is shown to have settled down after the main story and raised a child with a spouse of the opposite gender. This annoyed players who had chosen to role-play their character as gay in the original game. Ubisoft apologized, stating that they wanted to show how the character's bloodline continued into future generations of Assassins, but agreed to change the story.[244] Ubisoft released an update in February 2019 that alters the end scenes, to show that those who opted to play their character as gay will enter into a non-romantic relationship with a spouse for the purpose of continuing the bloodline, retaining the romantic choices the player otherwise made before, as well as changing the achievement name for reaching this point from "Growing up" to "Blood of Leonidas" to avoid implications made by the former.[245][246] |
| 2019 | Devotion | PC | Red Candle | The Taiwanese horror game Devotion drew backlash from Chinese players after two Easter eggs were discovered that mocked Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping, who is also the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. The first Easter egg consisted of a poster with text written on it referring to the president as a "Winnie-the-Pooh moron"; the children's literature character had previously been blocked online by the Chinese government for being heavily featured in Internet memes comparing him to Xi. The second Easter egg consisted of a newspaper describing the incarceration of an individual under the alias "Steamed Bun," a euphemism for Xi used by his critics to evade federal censorship. Following a review bombing campaign, developer Red Candle apologized for the Easter eggs' inclusion and stated that they would refund offended players. Reports from Chinese social media users also claimed that the game was pulled from Steam as a result of the controversy.[247][248] In December 2020, Red Candle had worked with GOG.com to bring the game back through that service, but GOG.com opted not to sell the game, stating it had received "many messages from gamers" criticizing them for doing so.[249] Red Candle Games opened their own digital storefront by March 2021 to sell Devotion and other games.[250] |
| 2019 | Rape Day | PC | Desk Plant | Rape Day was listed as an upcoming title on Steam around early March 2019; according to its description, Rape Day was a "dark comedy and power fantasy" visual novel that allowed the player to "[control] the choices of a menacing serial killer rapist during a zombie apocalypse." The game's store page included numerous warnings related to the content, including "violence, sexual assault, non-consensual sex, obscene language, necrophilia, incest, and the death of a baby". Many journalists quickly expressed concern about the game's content, based on the description and troubling screenshots and how it appeared to glorify rape, and opined that the game would be a type of litmus test of Valve's recently-developed hands-off policy in terms of Steam storefront curation, believing Valve should block the game. By March 6, 2019, Valve had issued a statement that it will not allow the game to be published on Steam, and removed its upcoming store page. In the company's statement, Valve said, "We respect developers' desire to express themselves, and the purpose of Steam is to help developers find an audience, but this developer has chosen content matter and a way of representing it that makes it very difficult for us to help them do that."[251][252] |
| 2019 | Ion Fury | PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch | Voidpoint | Initially titled Ion Maiden, Ion Fury was forced to change its title when the game's publisher was challenged with a trademark infringement lawsuit by the band Iron Maiden. After release, players found language within the game that was considered by some to be homophobic: a bottle of lotion labeled "Ogay" (parodying the brand Olay) and an inaccessible room containing the word "fagbag", allegedly a spoof on the title of the Duke Nukem theme song. Additionally, players on the game's Discord server found that some of the developers had previously used language that is insensitive to transgender causes. Developer Voidpoint and publisher 3D Realms apologized for the poor language, and vowed to donate US$10,000 to The Trevor Project, as well as patch out the offensive content. A week later, facing backlash from confused players who thought the entire game was to be censored, Voidpoint and 3D Realms clarified that they were not censoring content intended to be included in the game, and were merely removing the offensive word found within the inaccessible area, though still stressing that the behavior on Discord was unacceptable.[253] |
| 2019 | NBA 2K20 | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Stadia | 2K Games | Prior to the game's own release, NBA 2K20 received severe backlash for microtransactions components being advertised in a trailer which has blatant similarities to a casino. The heavy focus on these components in conjunction with the option to spend real-world currency on it has also caused many to criticize both PEGI and the ESRB for giving the game each organization's lowest possible age rating despite both boards claiming that gambling content, simulated or not, would warrant a significantly higher age rating.[254] |
2020s
| Release date | Title | Platform | Developer/Publisher | Reason(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons | Nintendo Switch | Nintendo (Nintendo EPD) | The game was pulled from Chinese online digital sales as it allowed users to create their own displays in game, some which were used to support the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.[255] |
| 2020 | Cooking Mama: Cookstar | Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 | 1st Playable Productions, Planet Entertainment | The game was released without any approval of the IP holder Office Create, which started a legal dispute against the game's publisher Planet Entertainment,[256] resulting in the removal of the game on the Nintendo eShop and an extremely limited print run. |
| 2020 | EA Sports UFC 4 | PlayStation 4, Xbox One | Electronic Arts (EA Vancouver) | The game, released as a standard premium title, was updated about a month after launch to include short but full screen in-game advertisements from third-parties. Fans complained to Electronic Arts, who stated that while they had used ads for the game itself, they recognized the negative feedback from players over these third-party ads, and disabled them within a few days.[257] |
| 2020 | Cyberpunk 2077 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S | CD Projekt | Cyberpunk 2077 was a highly anticipated game which had been planned for release around April 2020, but was pushed back until December 2020 between both technical issues, and as part of the COVID-19 pandemic. This put it into after the release of the next-generation consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game as released performed generally well on the Windows platform, but the game's performance on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One was considered extremely poor; none of the pre-release material for the game showed the game working on these consoles, and players complained that they were led to believe the game would play as well on the older platforms. CD Projekt admitted that they failed to test these versions as well as they had the other ports, and assisted players in trying to get refunds for digital purchases, despite Sony and Microsoft initially refusing to provide these.[258] Within a week of release, Sony stated they would refund the game on the PlayStation consoles but at the same time, removed the game from digital purchase until further notice.[259][249][260] |
| 2021 | Boyfriend Dungeon | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S | Kitfox Games | Boyfriend Dungeon is a role-playing game mixed with a dating simulator, in which the potential romantic interests are generally male characters that can turn into weapons that can be used within dungeons. In a late stage of the game, one of these characters engages in stalking and emotional manipulation of the player-character, which some players felt was inappropriately disturbing, and not adequately warned about in the game's content warnings. Developer Kitfox Games agreed to update the game's content warnings and storefront pages to alert players about these potentially troublesome topics.[261] |
| 2022 | Diablo Immortal | iOS/Android, Windows | Blizzard Entertainment | Diablo Immortal was originally announced as an exclusive mobile title for the Diablo series at the 2018 BlizzCon event. Attendees at the event booed the presentation in response, and fans took to social media to express discontentment with the announcement. The situation was further stressed when Kotaku had claimed that inside sources informed them that Blizzard had pulled a Diablo 4 announcement at the last minute, which Blizzard refuted the next day.[262][263][264] Following its release on June 2, 2022, Diablo Immortal faced widespread criticism over its use of microtransactions. Players alleged that the game is designed to be "pay-to-win" because it is supposedly harder for players to progress through its later stages without paying real-world money.[265][266][267] The game faced review bombing for Metacritic’s user review score, making it the site’s lowest ever user rating for a game.[268][269] |
| 2022 | beat refle | Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows | qureate | The game was originally titled Massage Freaks and slated for release on Nintendo Switch on August 4, 2022. It received criticism for its depiction of women, which was considered discriminatory and reminiscent of real-world sexual crimes at massage parlors in Japan.[270][271][272] It was also noted that female characters in the game shared their first names with members of the idol group Hinatazaka46.[271][272][273] Following the criticism, qureate delayed the Switch release indefinitely,[273][274] cancelled preorders,[270] and changed the characters' names.[272][273][274] beat refle was silently released on Steam on July 31, 2022,[273] albeit censored.[274] |
| 2023 | Hogwarts Legacy | PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch | Warner Bros. Games | The game received intense criticism from certain groups both for its alleged antisemitic themes involving goblins[275] as well as the Harry Potter series creator J.K. Rowling's controversial views on transgender people,[276] despite Rowling herself not being involved in the game's development.[277] |
| 2023 | Simulador de Escravidão | Android | MagnusGames | A Brazilian simulation mobile game where players can, according to the developer "exchange, buy and sell slaves". It has been called racist in Brazilian discourse and Google has since removed the game from the Play Store.[278] |
See also
References
External links
- The Top 7... Controversies Waiting to Happen: Sex! Murder! Godless blasphemy and animal abuse! How could the media possibly miss these button-pushing games? by GamesRadar
- The Top 7... Most Evil Games: See the most racist, hateful and tasteless titles you wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole by GamesRadar