Devotion Steam
Taiwanese horror game Devotion has been removed from Steam by its developers after it drew the ire of Chinese gamers by including a meme that mocked Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meme angered.
Devotion has secured its future at Harvard University a year after it was pulled from Steam.
- Acclaimed Taiwanese horror game Devotion, which was pulled from Steam shortly after its release last February following the discovery of a controversial art asset, has finally resurfaced and will be getting a physical release - albeit only in Taiwan for the time being.
- Update: Roughly three hours after removing Devotion from Steam without warning, Red Candles has issued a statement on the decision:'Due to technical issues that cause unexpected crashes and among.
The superb horror game, developed by Taiwan studio Red Candle Games, launched on Steam in the spring of 2019, but after it was found to contain an unflattering reference to China's president, Xi Jinping, it sparked an outcry among Chinese players that led to the withdrawal of its Chinese distributors, the closure of Red Candle's account on Weibo, one of China's largest social media platforms, and the removal of the game from Steam.
A year later, and with a re-release looking unlikely, Red Candle has finally found a home for Devotion - the Harvard-Yenching Library at Harvard University.
Both Devotion and its predecessor Detention have been added to the library's collection, Red Candle said in a post on Facebook. The move preserves both titles when there was fear they could be lost.
Devotion Game Reddit
'It is an incredible honour which belongs to not only Red Candle but also our supporters / players worldwide,' Red Candle said.
'Harvard-Yenching Library, formally founded in 1928, is known as the largest Eastern Asian library maintained by any American university. As game designers, never have we thought that our works could one day be added to its prestige collection. While we truly appreciate the recognition, we had also taken this opportunity to rethink the possibilities that our games could achieve.
'For the past one year, we are sorry for making our community worried. Although the current status might not be ideal, we are still here and that nothing has changed - we are and will always develop games with the same passion.
'Last but not the least, we'd like to express our gratitude toward our partners, friends and families, especially a big thank you to all fans who still believe in Red Candle Games. It's a tough year for many of us, but we will keep going, and hopefully in the future we could share more works with you all.'
Devotion Steamunlocked
Last year Eurogamer published a fascinating interview with Red Candle about what went down with Devotion, courtesy of writer Edwin Evans-Thirlwell. It's well worth a read if you want to know more about Devotion's developers and what they went through last year.