Gamer Girl is an upcoming FMV game centered around moderating for an up and coming female streamer, Abicake99. The story begins as she returns online following the mysterious disappearance of her friend Becky. The player’s job is to control her stream chat, which is home to an anonymous predator, and aid her in decision making to uncover the threat. Needless to say, it’s an unconventional premise that allured many curious gamers and fans of the streamers world. However, its reveal trailer garnered quite a bit of negative criticism for capitalizing off the real experiences of female gamers and streamers.

If you support the Gamer Girl game, you are turning a blind eye to actual female streamers experiencing actual harassment from actual people.

THIS IS NOT A GAME, THESE ARE OUR LIVES AND REAL EXPERIENCES. https://t.co/Xhlm5CR30q

— 🏳️‍🌈 melody: raising $ for Trevor Project 🏳️‍🌈 (@whatmelodywrote) July 17, 2020

The idea of a predator lurking online and in your stream chat with the intention of harassing or hurting you is a real fear amongst the female streamers. Many within the community were off-put by the premise, and left feeling as if their experiences were being exploited for a cash grab. The reveal trailer has since been removed from its original sources, being the Wales Interactive and PlayStation YouTube and Twitter pages.  The video can still be found on YouTube via third-party channels but remains removed from all official pages entirely. They are all littered with the same negative comments and criticism, even prompting one uploader, XboxViewTV, to respond in the comment section saying, “We see all this negative feedback for this new live-action game. Please give the developer a chance…”

At this time, the game is set to launch in September for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch. Wales Interactive took to their Twitter page to respond to criticism and expound upon the message of the game. The developers insist that their goal is to raise awareness of online abuse and empower players.

Gamer Girl is about the impact user comments and actions have on a streamer’s mental health and wellbeing. The reason why FMV Future created the game was to raise the issue of the toxic environment which can often appear online behind the anonymity of a username…

— Wales Interactive (@WalesInter) July 16, 2020