Ready or Not Game Loses Publisher After School Shooting Comment

Content Warning: This article contains references to violence and school shootings.

Upcoming indie game Ready or Not will have to find a new publisher after a developer’s comment on including a school shootings level went viral. Although studies have repeatedly found that there is no correlation between video games and real-life violence, school shootings are a tragic reality and there is good reason to question the need for simulating them in a video game.

Indie games represent the more experimental side of gaming and are often where gamers can find smaller, more unique titles for cheaper than the standard AAA games with $60 price tags. In such an expansive, unregulated space, anyone with adequate time, knowledge, and hardware can build a game that expresses their passions. As the video game industry has grown, various legislative bodies have looked at it with a more critical eye, too. Regulations on video games have grown in recent years, with states like Hawaii even proposing legislation to ban loot boxes. Making and publishing games is a constant balance between trying new things and playing it safe to keep gamers and those in charge happy, and that’s not always an easy tightrope to walk.

In this instance, Bleeding Cool reports that VOID Interactive, developer of the upcoming game Ready or Not, has lost its publisher after one of its team members made an enthusiastic comment about including a school shooting level in the game. In response to a question on Reddit about whether the game, a first-person shooter, would have a school shooting level, a developer said it would in a now-deleted tweet, “You better believe it’s gonna.” Shortly thereafter, VOID Interactive tweeted that Team17, the company set to publish the game, would no longer be doing so and that this was a mutual agreement. This sort of reaction has happened before, such as when Wal-Mart pulled violent video game ads after a shooting, but this leaves the team at VOID Interactive in a difficult place as they try to find a new publisher for Ready or Not. VOID Interactive released a longer statement a few days after the initial tweet, this statement indicating that it intends to proceed with a school shooting level in Ready or Not. The question of the game’s publisher was left unanswered.

This is a difficult situation because while VOID Interactive has stated that it wishes to depict everything respectfully and not trivialize the experiences of those who have experienced school shootings. However, the inclusion of the level will draw more negative attention going forward. Its inclusion may also fuel a resurgence in the debate over video games in violence, on which even the White House had something to say.

Indie video games are a booming industry, but the increased popularity also leads to many concerned observers that come with it. Regardless of VOID Interactive’s intentions, its decision to include such content has resulted in it now having no publisher. It remains to be seen where Ready or Not goes from here.

Source: Bleeding Cool, VOID Interactive (1, 2)

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