Last week, Voidpoint, the developers for Ion Fury made headlines following comments made in their Discord server and homophobic language found in the game. The developers apologized and said that they would remove any unacceptable language from the game as soon as possible. However, it seems like the developers had change of heart and released a statement saying that “Ion Fury game content will not be censored.”
The whole situation got started after comments made by some of the developers were found in the game’s Discord server. Many deemed the comments sexist and transphobic. Voidpoint and 3D Realms apologized for the comments, and released a statement saying that they promised to donate $10,000 to The Trevor Project which is a non-profit organization that focuses on preventing suicide from LGBTQ+ youth. They also said that they would get rid and patch out any “unacceptable language” from the game.
The joint statement from Voidpoint and publisher 3D Realms says:
“We’ve caused a recent controversy suggesting Ion Fury game content was to be censored.
We will absolutely NOT be censoring Ion Fury or any of our other games, now or in the future, including but not limited to by removing gags such as gaming’s most controversial facial wash.
We do not support censorship of creative works of any kind and regret our initial decision to alter a sprite in the game instead of trusting our instincts. 3D Realms and Voidpoint stand together on this matter.
Last but not least, please respect our need to keep our community forums clean from hateful messages, spam, or off-topic threads. We recognize our mistake and have received your message loud and clear!”
3D Realms also released a separate statement which reads:
“We at 3D Realms spoke with Voidpoint today and they reaffirmed their commitment to honoring their original statement, including the donation to The Trevor Project and sensitivity training. However, the soap bottle will not be removed.
The use of the word “f*gbag” in an area that was inaccessible without hacking the game, and was added by one developer without approval from anyone else, was removed a few days ago. We once again apologize for this text as it does not reflect the values of 3D Realms or Voidpoint.
Jokes at the expense of marginalized communities will not be present in future games published by 3D Realms. However, a portion of our community made it loud and clear they felt removing “Ogay” was censorship and should be protected by free speech. Voidpoint wanted to listen and we respected this decision.”