Last month, you may remember a lot of controversy upon the announcement of FMV title Gamer Girl from Wales Interactive. The internet felt that the experience was attempting to capitalize on the abuse that female streamers receive in real life, while the portrayal from Abicakes99 was deemed harmful and stereotypical. Every official mention of the game was scrubbed from the internet very quickly afterwards, and despite a September 2020 launch date attached to the reveal, neither the developer nor publisher have commented on the matter since.
Since the controversy, Wales Interactive's Twitter account has shifted gears towards talking about recent release Maid of Sker and other upcoming projects. Gamer Girl is not one of them -- the publisher has not made a single mention of the title since its reveal and the ensuing statement it had to make. Meanwhile, developer FMV Future hasn't tweeted since 7th August 2020 where it said that it was "taking the reaction to this trailer very seriously." On the same day, it said that it would issue a proper response to the backlash in "due course". Three weeks later, there has been no follow-up.
Separately, we have contacted Wales Interactive on two different occasions for comment on the matter and asking whether or not Gamer Girl will still release in September. Push Square received no response in the lead up to the publishing of this article.
So, will Gamer Girl launch on PlayStation 4 next month? Every sign and indicator is pointing towards no. Maybe the game has been quietly cancelled, or gone back to the drawing board to come up with a new approach? We don't have the answers to those questions, but you shouldn't expect Gamer Girl to release in September 2020 at the very least.
Comments 21
It was an almighty screw-up from start to finish. These are the sort of situations where you wonder how many execs signed off on this game at each stage of development.
No gaming for the girl next month, then. Wasn't even slightly interested, so no bother for me.
Just release it. Made my opinions of the perpetually offended social media cretins on the last article about it.
It looked bad, the outrage was ridiculous though. Ignore the twitter mob and release it, it might do fine.
@Orange_Man_Bad I didn’t think a single person could be both this dense and mean-spirited. They’ve been on this site for years, it’s a bloody joke and this attitude of conflating girls who play games and sex workers is literally why this game had a backlash in the first place.
Just release the game, outrage culture wins if they don't. If someone feels offended by the content they have the magical option of not playing it.
Game looks horrendously bad but like, I don't really see the problem here. We got games that simulate actual wars but folks can't have a bit of fun controlling the life of one lone gamer girl? Odd.
Hilarious, you guys banned Gamer-Girl for having a sense of humour 🤣
People have reacted based on what their imagination says this is and it’s absurd. This could be a well made and sensitively approached experience that shines a light on issues. I say release it, get it reviewed, and if it’s good I’ll buy it.
I'll wait for a next gen version..
Oh good...I was scouring the Internet for something to be outraged about today.
The game looked ridiculous and I was very much looking forward to it, in the way I enjoy a good crap movie.
@nessisonett
I think the reception has been entirely unfair. Yes, its cringy. Yes, it can be misconstrued as a simp sim where you get the girl in the end.
But how about we let the game release before we make those judgement calls? It looks like a horror FMV that tries to use a familiar UI that works the same as when we watch streams.
I would never buy this, don't get me wrong. But I would LOVE to watch streamers play this.
It looks like it would be such a fun time.
I see nothing offensive here. No worse then Nighttrap and just as campy.
I have no interest but I say just release it and who ever wants it gets to play it.
Me personally I find this just another example of why everyone in the year 2020 is a entitled crybaby. Dude it's a video game and there's been way worse out there in movies and video games. This is tame compared to must of the triple A games and big Hollywood movies
@KeanuReaves I feel the problem is people love to complain it's in the human nature. Really what makes it so bad it's exactly what Twitch streamers go through on a daily basis. I feel like everyone just jumps the gun they see something that upsets them and they go running to their computer to say something that doesn't need to be said.
@Mike1288 very well said.
But I just think that people who do it are not happy with their everyday life. I can't picture someone who's happy with his life getting frustrated over such insignificant things.
@nessisonett I think we are going a little far with being mad about everything. Just as bad as Ubisoft changing the logo for the badguys in game because it looks like BLM logo. 😆
@Flaming_Kaiser The point isn’t just that it’s similar to the BLM logo. The entire premise of the baddies looked awfully similar to the garbage peddled online by far-right conspiracy theorists about how BLM is a front for the Jew World Order. The group radicalise the downtrodden into causing an uprising, with recent events combined with that logo, it’s just extremely close to home. It’s the simplest thing in the world to apologise and the art director in charge just didn’t think, which points to an art room that isn’t exactly diverse or up on recent events. Media changes all the time depending on the current world situation as it’s a reflection of society. Just look at how movies like High Noon were allegories for McCarthyism at the time but we can still relate to them today. Shakespeare plays even feature political satire of the time. While in a perfect society of the future, racial discrimination will be a thing of the past, the lessons we can learn from this very period of history will live on. It’s not like there’s much of a nuanced dialog to be had discussing the merits of a logo in a mobile gatcha game anyway. That being said, it’s a Tom Clancy game, what else do people expect other than right-wing jingoism? There’s a reason he’s everybody’s racist uncle’s favourite author!
@nessisonett Please stop it how do you make up this nonsense? So if you play a Tom Clancy you are a racist what a joke. The logo isnt exclusive too BLM even if they want it too. The world is more then the US only. The problems in the US go way deeper then skincolor only. Its about inequality on all fronts, poverty, corporations with a way to big reach into politics, gunlobby, healthcare not being the same for all, your president. FFS you have states where its illegal too get a abortion after being raped or even with incest.
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