Hidden message in Devotion irritates Chinese players

Taiwanese horror title has been updated and the message has been removed, but players are still upset despite the studio's apology.

Devotion is a horror game developed by Taiwan studio Red Candle Games and it recently released on PC via Steam. Before it was published, the game had already got some attention due to its nostalgic atmosphere and exquisite but gloomy art style.

However, the past weekend Devotion has caused some controversy due to the hidden content in the game. Some players found out that in a scene in the game there were some words on the Taoist Fulu mocking the leader of China, Xi Jinping.

Some Chinese gamers were upset by this and declared that they are going to boycott the game because they see this as an insult. Devotion also got review bombed by Chinese users on its Steam page, where it went from "very positive" to "mixed".

After this happened, the development team published a statement to apologise for not being careful enough:

"The words written on the art material does not stand for Red Candle Games' stance, nor is it in any ways related to Devotion's story and theme. However, even if this was caused by an individual behavior, as a whole, it is Red Candle Games' responsibility. For the players, streamers and media friends, we are deeply sorry that we hurt your feelings. After all, if it were not for your support, Red Candle Games wouldn't have gone so far, let along the release of Detention and Devotion. The last thing we want is to fail your trust. This is not what we visioned for, but unfortunately the damage has been made. For that, we take full responsibility. We deeply regret and are awfully sorry for the sensitive art material, and that when the incident first came out, we failed to put ourselves into your position."

The offending words were removed from the game in Update 1.0.5.

Even though Red Candle tried to fix the problem, their publishing partner in China (Indievent) has announced that they will not work with Red Candle anymore and has ceased cooperation with them immediately due to this incident. Despite that, the game continues to sell well in the region.