Red Candle won’t re-release Devotion after China criticism controversy

Taiwanese indie game studio Red Candle Games has issued a statement about the state and future of their controversial psychological-horror game Devotion. The game had to be pulled from Steam after reports broke out that it included material criticizing the Chinese government. You can read the full statement below.

Politics and gaming have a long history but for the most part publishers and developers try to stay clear of direct political messaging in their entertainment products. The recent case with the horror game Devotion is likely going to further cement this approach. Developer Red Candle Games released their game earlier this year for PC via Steam.

The game itself became a success with glowing reviews. Things started to change drastically however after Chinese gamers noticed in-game texts and images which looked to criticize the Chinese government and the country’s citizens. Naturally, this blew up in the news media and ended up with the developer having to take off Devotion from Steam to edit the controversial materials out.

For months the developer has been working on changing their game but things aren’t looking so good. The game, developer, and publisher have now been marked by Chinese gamers and Red Candle Games has probably noticed that it doesn’t make much sense to reintroduce Devotion again. As such, in today’s statement, we learn that the developer has decided to not re-release the game in the near term. Maybe they are planning to wait until the controversy gets forgotten but for now, at least, the game will not be coming back.

It’s a shame as the developer has been trying to convince everyone that it was an accident that such material got into their game in the first place, and for the time that game was out, players have been praising Devotion for being a great horror game.