Red Candle Games can't seem to catch a break with their horror game Devotion. Last year, the game was released on Steam, but was quickly pulled within its launch week, after players found that the game had a poster that compared Xi Jinping--the Chinese president--to Winnie the Pooh. While Red Candle Games stated that the inclusion of the poster was due to a technical issue, the game remains pulled from sale on Steam to this day. Following the incident, Devotion's publisher in China, Indievent, lost its business license, and while a direct reason was never specified outside of "violating relevant laws", it was implied that allowing Devotion to release with the said image included in its files was why.

After being unable to find success on Steam, it seemed that Devotion would be able to release on GOG, as Red Candle Games announced the game for a December 18th launch. However, shortly after said reveal, GOG put out an official statement saying they had decided to refuse Devotion to be listed on their storefront, due to "receiving many messages from gamers". The decision to block the game from sale has garnered backlash, with "fellow indie developer" Glass Bottom Games demanding CD Projekt Red and GOG remove their upcoming title SkateBIRD from the platform.

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[Viri]

"yeah pooh threatened us and we shat ourselves"

Yup, if a company came out and said "yeah, the CCP threaten to remove us from their country, and we love money, so we removed it", I'd probably respect them for being honest, I wouldn't like it, but I'd at least respect them for being honest.

 

[Xzi]

Steam have some very notable comments on the matter over the years, and some utter nonsense in it as well (my favourite being when they likened second hand games to used products nobody would want, as though as it was not code).

As opposed to nobody else commenting on it because nobody else has even given it a second thought? I know we've discussed it before, but since we're on the topic of GOG, how would digital game resale work with DRM-free platforms and games? The end user can just resell millions of copies after one purchase? Seems like you'd be forcing every developer to adopt intrusive and uncrackable DRM (which doesn't exist yet). This would screw over indie devs big time, and piss off a lot of gamers in the process.

And yes, there are quite a few DRM-free games on Steam, as well.

 

[Bladexdsl]

china is going to regret doing this. i can see the pooh memes flooding in any minute now across the internet

 

[Lumstar]

Yup, if a company came out and said "yeah, the CCP threaten to remove us from their country, and we love money, so we removed it", I'd probably respect them for being honest, I wouldn't like it, but I'd at least respect them for being honest.

I seriously doubt the CCP granted approval for GOG to operate in China in the first place.

 

[Xzi]

I seriously doubt the CCP granted approval for GOG to operate in China in the first place.

They had to have. No business operates in China without the government's say so.

 

[FAST6191]

As opposed to nobody else commenting on it because nobody else has even given it a second thought? I know we've discussed it before, but since we're on the topic of GOG, how would digital game resale work with DRM-free platforms and games? The end user can just resell millions of copies after one purchase? Seems like you'd be forcing every developer to adopt intrusive and uncrackable DRM (which doesn't exist yet). This would screw over indie devs big time, and piss off a lot of gamers in the process.

And yes, there are quite a few DRM-free games on Steam, as well.

Same way resale works with DVDs (which are effectively DRM free). That is to say basically honour system, though some kind of effective key/license storage server would also be an option.

 

[guisadop]

I used to actually like GoG, lol. I think I won't be buying from them anytime soon then..

 

[nhamokid]

China having its own region on almost all platforms, a region block should suffice I guess.

 

[Viri]

China having its own region on almost all platforms, a region block should suffice I guess.

China wants to impose their rules onto the rest of the world, when it comes to China related stuff.

 

[HarveyHouston]

Those Communists think they rule the world, but they don't rule the internet! At least, I don't think so... Anyway, they can't shut up every single person who bad-mouths their leaders. As long as there are people, there will be at least one who has a different opinion from everyone else.