The other day, the Polish studio CI Games was at the center of a scandal. It is connected with an event dedicated to her new game Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2. Participants had to kill armed actors dressed in Arab costumes. The press criticized the developers for militarism and propaganda of violence, although the studio itself was not even at the event.What happened?
On June 23, Eric Switzer, author of The Gamer, spoke about a PR event dedicated to the game Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2. 10 journalists and influencers were invited to the training ground in San Diego, where police and military training take place.
The organizers stylized the place as a real combat zone, along which armed actors in white robes and kufiyas moved. They clearly resembled Islamists, but no one directly called them Arabs. Instead, the participants of the event were only told that these were “enemies” who killed “a lot of good Americans.”
Schwitzer initially did not like the military orientation of the event. “From the window we shot at the role—playing players below, as if they were targets in a human shooting gallery. It was the most inhumane part of the whole day,” the journalist wrote.
He noted that this event once again demonstrates how frivolously American culture treats violence against the Arab population. Finally, the author of The Gamer found a flag on the landfill with the inscription: “Trump 2024: A Tour of Retribution.”
The most interesting thing is that the event schedule did not even have time to play Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2, although there were several computers with the project installed at the training ground itself. The developers themselves were also unable to attend the event due to the pandemic, and therefore it was not possible to ask them questions.
As a result, The Gamer’s material caused a resonance in the network. Some users began to criticize the CI Games studio for holding an event that, in their opinion, promotes violence and makes a show of real military operations.
Developers’ reactionThe Polish studio published an official response on June 24.
The developers noted that they were “deeply outraged” by The Gamer’s report, and they themselves imagined this event in a completely different way.
“CI Games despises racism in any form, and as a Polish studio from Warsaw, we are in no way affiliated with any political party or movement from the United States,” the developers wrote.
An open response to @thegamerwebsite article regarding our recent press event. pic.twitter.com/gwxXUCtfZo
— CI Games (@CIGamesOfficial)
At the same time, CI Games clarified that it wanted to avoid any associations with real events, since the action of Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 takes place in a fictional world. However, due to the appearance of the enemies and other attributes, a parallel with the real events in the Middle East suggested itself.
Since CI Games could not fly to the USA due to the pandemic, she was unable to fully control the organization. Despite this, the developers took full responsibility for the scandalous event and apologized personally to Schwitzer and everyone who found the event offensive.
CI Games are far from the first developers of military shooters who get into such scandals. In February, it was announced the relaunch of Six Days in Fallujah, which tells about the second battle in the Iraqi city of Fallujah. As a result of the battle, 100 American soldiers and at least 800 civilians were killed. The developers were accused of justifying war crimes, after which the studio stated that there would be no politics and assessments of the events in the game.
In June, DICE also faced criticism due to the Battlefield 2042 setting. The developers noted that they show the consequences of global warming just for the sake of gameplay and are not going to make loud socio-political statements out of it. In response, a number of users and journalists accused DICE of weakness and fear of recognizing the presence of a certain statement in the game.