A recent tweet by Taiwanese developer Red Candle Games keeps those looking to try their follow-up to Detention with this year’s Devotion in a state of continued waiting.
The game, which still remains off of Steam, was initially pulled from the platform after it drew complaints from Chinese players who felt that the game contained a disrespectful reference to Chinese president Xi Jinping. Red Candle Games has issued a statement stating that they have agreed not to re-release their game in the near-term.
In the statement, Red Candle takes full responsibility for what they call “the incident,” which they say has caused “immeasurable harm” to the studio and to its Chinese publishing partner, Indieevent. Indieevent has subsequently had its business license revoked by the Shanghai city government.
“Red Candle’s co-founders have reached a unanimous decision to not re-release ‘Devotion‘ in the near term, including but not limited to obtaining profit from sales, revision, IP authorization, etc. to prevent unnecessary misconception,” the letter reads. “We want to apologize to the players for the wait. We are truly sorry, but please understand our decision.”
Red Candle goes on to say the studio had no intention of staging a publicity stunt, and that refusing to re-release or profit from the game is a step the studio is taking to re-establish good faith. However, the studio does leave the door open for the game to see a re-release, whenever that might be.
“If, in the future, the public would be willing to view this game rationally and allow us the opportunity to rebuild trust with our players, Red Candle would reconsider re-releasing ‘Devotion‘.”
As part of the fallout from the incident, Red Candle Games was forced to assume liability for losses incurred by publisher Indieevent, and have had their blogging account blocked by the Chinese government.
Greetings, we are Red Candle Games from Taiwan. To all of our players, industry and media friends, we would like to provide an update on ‘Devotion’. pic.twitter.com/wfGTUbHtHx
— redcandlegames (@redcandlegames) July 15, 2019