Ion Fury Is a Retro-Style FPS That’s Run Into Some Controversy Recently
Update (12:41 PM EST): Voidpoint’s Twitter account has clarified that the developer team has removed the “f*gbag” joke. The studio has also confirmed that the donation to The Trevor Project is still going to happen.
Original Story:
Ion Fury developer Voidpoint recently came under fire after it was discovered that two of its employees made controversial comments on Discord about transgender people. It was also discovered that Ion Fury had two homophobic jokes (which were a fictional shampoo called “Ogay” and a sprite that read “fagbag”).
In response to the backlash, Voidpoint apologized for the comments of its employees along with promising to remove the jokes. The studio also promised to donate $10,000 of Ion Fury’s proceeds to The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ suicide prevention organization.
However, on Monday, Voidpoint and the game’s publisher, 3D Realms, issued a joint statement that backtracked the decision to patch out offensive in-game jokes.
“We’ve caused a recent controversy suggesting Ion Fury game content was to be censored,” the statement read. “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,” it also read. “3D Realms and Voidpoint stand together on this matter.”
While it’s been stated that these controversial jokes will not be patched out, it is unclear if the promised $10,000 donation to The Trevor Project is still happening.
What do you make of this news? Speak your mind in the comments section below.