GOG cancels Devotion's release just hours after annoucement
Devotion had a moment of hope, but it was just a moment.
Devotion has had a complicated life since it was released in February of last year. The game famously was taken off of Steam after it was found to contain a meme of Chinese president Xi Jinping as Winnie the Pooh. Chinese censors have been very strict about images suggesting a resemblance between the president and the Disney character.
The game was viciously reviewed bombed by Chinese players, and eventually, Taiwanese developer Red Candle Games apologised for the incident before the game mysteriously disappeared from Valve's storefront. Red Candle said this was due to technical issue. It never returned.
In July last year, Chinese publisher of the game, Indievent, lost its business licence from the Chinese Government, supposedly directly due to the incident. The game saw a physical release earlier this year in Taiwan, but it has remained out of reach for many international players.
That seemed like it might change today, when it was announced that Devotion would be coming to CD Projekts storefront, GOG. Developer Red Candle tweeted:
This hope was short-lived though. It appears just mere hours after the announcement, GOG announced that due to outrage from “gamers” they had gone back on their decision to sell the game.
It's not exactly clear how and where this backlash came from or quite how it manifested. Whatever happened though, it seems to have been a big enough response to give GOG cold feet about the release.
It's a sad story for the game, which was well-received by critics. The horror garnered great reviews on its release, and it's a shame many players, especially those looking for a good scare, haven't been able to buy the game for a long time.