Devotion removed from Steam, Red Candles Games issued a statement

Released last February 19, Devotion got positive reviews and hundreds of thousands of viewers on Twitch. It’s safe to say that Devotion got the traction upon the release. But not long after that, Devotion faced criticisms from Chinese players due to a piece of art that according to them is mocking their president, Xi Jinping. Due to that, their game was the victim of a massive review-bombing campaign, and now it only has 40% of positive reviews. The negative reviews are also affecting Detention (Devotion’s predecessor) that is now down to only 30% positive reviews.

This issue is nothing new since memes of Winnie the Pooh mocking Jinping has been around the Internet for a while. In fact, the movie Christopher Robin was banned in China last year because of a similar reason. Devotion’s developer, Red Candle Games first addressed the issue and released a statement last February 23rd. They claimed that it was a placeholder that was taken down and replaced since the evening of February 21st and that they were taking full responsibility for the incident. They also emphasized that this is purely by accident and that it’s never their intention to harm any individual’s integrity. Seemingly discontented with their previous explanation, Red Candle Games posted a follow-up statement the next day. They apologized to the players and said that the art material was released without the knowledge of everyone in the team. They only became aware of its existence when a player privately reported what’s written on the art material. They immediately took action and replaced the art material within an hour. Their explanations went to the deaf ears of angry fans.

The developer’s Weibo account has been shut down, Devotion’s Steam store page is now nowhere to be found, and players wouldn’t be able to buy it anymore. All of the Devotion’s related content have been removed from their YouTube channel as well. Three hours after the removal, Red Candles released another statement. In their About the Store Page, they said that the removal was due to technical issues and it won’t be up on Steam until a complete QA check is done. No new developments have been released yet so let's all wait for further announcements as to when Devotion is coming back.