25 years later, the gaming console that caused so much chaos is still No. 1



After a quarter of a century, one console still reigns supreme.

It has been nearly 25 years to the day since iconic photos and video of the Paris launch showed just how crazy the world was for PlayStation 2.

'I never leave my house.'

On November 24, 2000, crowds in Europe lined up, camped, and even pushed through crowds to get their hands on a PlayStation 2 for the first time. The launch was almost a month after the American Oct. 26 debut and signified a true consumerism-fueled riot that became synonymous with Black Friday.

From its launch day through Christmas 2000, Sony said it sold 1.35 million units in North America and another 1 million units in Europe during that same period.

The PS2 has sold an average of over 6 million consoles per year since then, or 500,000 per month, totaling more than 160 million lifetime units sold as of this November.

RELATED: A kid got a mint PS1 from his grandpa, and the internet is freaking out

As reported by Techgaged.com, the PS2 eclipses two Nintendo products at the top of the list.

The second-most sales are for the handheld Nintendo DS at 154 million, followed by the Nintendo Switch portable console at 152 million.

A steep drop occurs for fourth place with the original Game Boy, released in 1989, having 118 million units sold. Sony's PS1 and Nintendo's Wii are the only other gaming systems to have sold over 100 million.

Interestingly, the PlayStation 2's main competitors during its era, the Nintendo GameCube (launched in North America on Nov. 18, 2001) and the original Xbox (launched in North America on Nov. 15, 2001), do not even crack the top-20 list.

The Xbox, Microsoft's first foray into gaming systems, has sold 24.65 million units in its lifetime, while the GameCube has sold 21.74 million units.

Both company's modern systems — Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch — have already surpassed the sales of their 2000s counterparts.

RELATED: The price tag on Mark Zuckerberg's bid for 'superintelligence' will blow your mind. Will the product?

Photo By Eduardo Parra/Europa Press via Getty Images

The PS2 was so pervasive, historical image banks provide a bounty of time capsules showing celebrities flooding PS2-themed parties that were constantly taking place to promote the product.

There were events like the PlayStation 2 and the Hip-Hop Summit "Race to the Polls" event in 2004, or the mouthful, PlayStation 2 Celebrates Red White and Blue with Poolside Party at the Bentley Hotel in NYC, temporarily referred to as the PlayStation 2 Hotel for the occasion, in 2003.

Super Bowl parties became linked with the console during that era too. The Sony PlayStation 2 Game Over Party saw celebrities like NSYNC in its first year and Paris Hilton in its second year. In fact, the celebrity sightings and performances connected to PS2 events at that time are nearly limitless.

If readers don't believe the PS2 was as much of a cross-cultural phenomenon as it seems, refer to this quote from "Friends" actor Matthew Perry in 2000.

"I used to have a social life, go on dates, go to dinner parties, have a job. Now all I do is sit in a big chair and play PlayStation 2," Perry said, per Digital Journal. "I never leave my house. My friends have wondered what happened to me. Howard Hughes must have had one of these."

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A kid got a mint PS1 from his grandpa, and the internet is freaking out



A simple hand-me-down has turned into a lively debate about having children at an early age and retro video games.

The retro-gaming community has become a gigantic industry (worth between $3 billion and $10 billion depending on the source), so large in fact that an old box of games or forgotten console could be worth thousands depending on the condition.

So when a third-generation gamer took to 4chan to post about whether or not it was worth it to fool around with an old PlayStation, readers' brains imploded at his remarks. Not necessarily because of his apprehension over playing the system, but because he was receiving it secondhand from his grandfather.

'This is nature healing.'

The unknown gamer posted his dilemma, which was then copied to an X post; it read: "Hey guys, I got this PS1 from my grandpa. Should I play it? I know there a lot of uncs here so maybe you would know if it's good or not."

Flabbergasted, readers immediately asked if the original poster was purposely trying to enrage them with his remarks, with some introspectively asking, "am I an 'unc'?"

The new console owner calmly replied, "My grandpa is 58 and my dad is 38. He got the PS1 when my dad was 8, and my dad had me at 20, so I'm 18 now. My grandpa said he got the PS1 when it was released so he was 28 then."

This spawned a flood of comments on X, ranging from support for young grandparents to disbelief at the idea that gaming consoles are now so old that they can be passed down by grandparents.

RELATED: Legendary Halo composer unravels the video-game industry’s woke collapse

— (@)

"Normalize being grandparents in your 50s," one X user replied, while another pointed to the grim reality that retro gamers are the new antique hunters.

"Wait until you see tube tv prices[;] we've become the old people collecting antiques," he wrote.

Other replies were seemingly more sarcastic: "What's that grey rope wrapped around the controller?" an X user asked, referring to the connecting cord.

Another reader boldly claimed it is those ages "60-70 who paid for Duck Hunt on NES."

He was not that far off. Duck Hunt was released on the NES in 1984, and a 60-year-old would have been 20 or a 70-year-old would have been 30 at the time.

RELATED: Rainbow Batman from LEGO sparks outrage: 'We don't need gay Batman!'

Photo by KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images

Others were more philosophical, stating that "Millennials understanding technology better than our grandparents was an aberration."

The user's assertion that grandparents know "more about literally everything than their grandkids," including entertainment, was enough for him to determine that society is quickly resetting itself in terms of reverting back to righteousness.

"This is nature healing," he wrote.

If nature equates to gamers scooping up old consoles, that user is right. However, PlayStation 1 is actually one of the cheaper retro systems currently on the market, likely due to the volume at which they were purchased. A used unit goes for about $100 USD if complete, or around $335 for an in-box version, according to current prices on PriceCharting.

Readers may be shocked to find out that a special-edition Nintendo 64 can sell for more than $3,700, and a single Pokemon game (Emerald, 2004) will fetch around $2,000.

Either nature is healing itself or nostalgia is. Entire store chains now exist dedicated to old video games, and it will not be long before great-grandparents are handing down their Gameboy Color to grandsons, who will likely scoff at the 8-bit monstrosity.

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Sony loses over $200M with DEI game studio that pushed morbidly-obese women and robots with pronouns



Sony and PlayStation have shut the doors on Firewalk Studios after the developers lost more than $200 million for their parent company in about two weeks. Sony purchased the studio in 2023.

Before its release, Concord — a space-aged first-person shooter game — was criticized for its excessive and forced diversity themes, including multiple characters who were morbidly obese and even robots with preferred pronouns.

It took just 14 days after its August 23 release date for Sony to shut down operations and pull the game from both physical and digital shelves.

At the time, Sony said certain "aspects of the game" didn't "land the way [they were] intended" and that Concord would be pulled from the market immediately. It also offered refunds to all customers.

Sony also said it was still determining the "best path ahead" for the game.

'We took the game offline.'

Fast forward six weeks, and Sony has announced it will close the studio, marking one of the most monetarily-damaging mistakes in recent gaming history.

"Certain aspects of Concord were exceptional," Sony generously wrote on its blog. "But others did not land with enough players, and as a result we took the game offline. We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options."

"After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio," Sony added.

The gaming giant noted that the studio "did not hit" its "targets."

While the game was a massive failure that took approximately eight years to develop, Sony's financial implications were even bigger than initially expected.

Initial reports estimated a $100 million loss for the studio, given the cost of similar projects. However, insider testimony has since revealed that the game's initial development deal was over $200 million, not counting the rest of the studio's agreement with Sony.

Citing sources familiar with the agreement, Kotaku reported that the $200 million was not even enough to cover the game's development and did not include the purchase of Concord's intellectual property rights or the purchase of Firewalk Studios itself.

'Putting new things into the world is critical.'

Firewalk has since issued a lengthy final statement on X, disregarding the financial losses and the real reasons its game was widely rejected.

"Firewalk is signing off one last time," it wrote.

The company stated that the project "landed much more narrowly than hoped," but qualified its statement with a claim that the market is "heavily consolidated."

The studio then justified its project by saying that while "other aspects of the IP didn't land," the idea of "putting new things into the world is critical to pushing the medium forward."

Firewalk is signing off one last time.

Firewalk began with the idea of bringing the joy of multiplayer to a larger audience. Along the way we assembled an incredible team who were able to:
- Navigate growing a new startup into a team during a global pandemic: Firewalk was…
— Firewalk (@FirewalkStudios) October 29, 2024

The studio closes out the post with "end transmission," as if it were written in the fantasy world it had created. This odd disconnect, which largely ignores the reality of a monumental ideological failure, echoes similar sentiments that DEI-laden games have pushed out recently.

Many studios have acted as if they are playing with Monopoly money, which has cost big studios hundreds of millions while often hiring ideological allies to push their viewpoints through their games (see Unknown 9 and Dustborn).

A recent Suicide Squad game cost Warner Bros. $200 million.

Unknown 9: Awakening is estimated at a loss between $80-$120 million.

Other games like Dustborn simply blew through $1.56 million in grants.

Only time will tell whether other studios seemingly come to their senses the way Sony has and cut their losses before it's too late.

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Gamers unimpressed by Harris campaign’s Fortnite map, leading to immediate backlash



The Kamala Harris campaign announced its own map on the popular shooter game Fortnite just a week before the election as part of a bid to reach gamers. The map was met with very few initial users.

"Freedom Town, USA" sports some of the Harris campaign promises and presents itself in the exact way an out-of-touch politician would attempt to reach young audiences.

In a promo video, "Fight for freedom" appears in large text as generic rock-rap music begins to play. On the map's backdrop, fictional retail outlets like "Kamala's Kicks" fill the streets.

The imagery also showcases signs in rainbow colors that display generic messages like "Promise of America" and "Freedom."

"Kamala Harris and Tim Walz's campaign have released their very own Fortnite map in a bid to court the most oppressed demographic: 12-year-old gamers who play Fortnite," writer Ian Miles Cheong wrote on X.

"Freedom Town, USA is a custom creative map themed around some of Harris' campaign, including tax breaks for small businesses and affordable housing."

Cheong also revealed that audio cues in the new map included clips from Donald Trump. For example, when you pick up a cat, Trump says, "They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats," plays.

"You have to wonder who they're even campaigning for," Cheong added.

The map, which was officially released on October 28, so far has not been a hit. It carried an impressively low all-time peak of 261 concurrent users and is ranked No. 435 as a map. At the time of this publication, there were 1.7 million people playing Fortnite.

Other pushes from the Harris campaign into the gaming world have included a Geeks & Nerds for Harris fundraiser.

Embarrassingly broken up into the categories "Earth heroes" and "space explorers," the organizers describe themselves as a "diverse group of fandoms and artists teaming up to support Kamala Harris."

'Those guys drew up a playbook and it's project 2025.'

Additionally, vice presidential candidate and Governor Tim Walz was joined in a video game streaming session by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The pair played the football game Madden 25 and the driving game Crazy Taxi.

During their stream, Walz attacked Trump for wanting an administration that tells citizens "what books to read" while connecting him to Project 2025.

"I think a lot of folks on here are kind of independent folks, independent thinkers about things," Walz stated. "Why would you want the government telling you what books to read, or what doctor to see, or what how big your family can be?"

"It's that kind of stuff [that] is ridiculous and so I think, you talk about football planning, it's the same way; if you're going to drop a playbook in football you're going to use it. Those guys drew up a playbook and it's project 2025."

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Call of Duty introduces series' first nonbinary character with 'they/them' pronouns



Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is breaking theoretical glass ceilings with the inclusion of a nonbinary character for the first time in its series.

The character named Volta Rossi is of Italian descent and described as "a street-smart rogue with a blue-blood pedigree."

"Volta Rossi is an enigma who left the comfort of aristocracy to forge a new name as a [human intelligence] specialist," the game explains.

As reported by the Gamer, Rossi is the only character that uses they/them pronouns in its description.

"Their ties to the Luttazzi family give them unique insight into Avalon," the caption reads.

Other character descriptions use he/him and she/her, marking a likely intentional move by developer Activision.

Photos of the character online show a strange, sparse-eyed individual, which aligns with the modern reimagining of femineity that major studios have typically adopted in recent years. Female characters have increasingly been designed to be unattractive, using traits such as masculine jawlines and figures, sometimes coupled with obesity.

Some have argued that the new character is a natural progression from Agent Bell, who appeared in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which was released in 2020.

The character's origin was purposely left open-ended, leaving it to the user to decide their birthplace and gender.

For gender options, gamers could select male, female, nonbinary, or "classified."

Outlets pointed out that when using the nonbinary or classified options, the character did not make any noises when getting injured for some reason.

With an October 25 release, it's difficult to predict how this news may affect sales.

Given how hard big-budget games have suffered in 2024 once fans become aware developers are pushing diversity-driven story arcs, the move seems to be a big risk for studio Treyarch.

For example, Sony's Concord lost approximately $100 million after closing shop following just 14 days online. The game was highly criticized for morbidly obese characters and the excessive use of pronouns.

"Even the robot has pronouns," gamer Kabrutus, owner of DEI Detected, said in a review at the time. The writer showed off an image of a robot in the game that had "he/him" pronouns on the character select screen.

However, given the young age of the Call of Duty fanbase and the massive success of the franchise, the brand may be too big to fail.

According to Variety, Call of Duty: Black Ops IV pulled over $500 million in its first three days of release in 2018, which was about the same as its predecessor.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War sold approximately 5.7 million copies in its first month, GameRant reported.

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ANOTHER woke video game tanks after star actress calls it the most 'diverse' and authentic game she's ever seen



Another woke disaster is well in the works from the usual set of suspects in Quebec, Canada.

Unknown 9: Awakening was developed by Reflector Entertainment, which is backed by Japanese studio Bandai Namco. The iconic Japanese brand that brought audiences Pac-Man and Tekken will have some soul searching to do as its latest venture has immediately circled the drain.

After an October 18 release date, Unknown 9: Awakening has garnered a pitiful peak of 276 concurrent players on gaming platform Steam.

Industry and fan accounts have estimated the game's budget to be somewhere between $80-$120 million based on studio size and similar projects, with some writers reporting an embarrassing performance at big box stores as well.

Some predicted the game's failure from its onset once it was learned that video game consulting agency Sweet Baby Inc. was heavily involved in the project.

Sweet Baby Inc. has become synonymous with diversity-centric storylines, painfully adding unnecessary DEI and woke aspects into popular games such as Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarok.

The company has accused critics of its political injections of being "far-right" antagonists and said it has been subject to "harassment" campaigns and "disinformation."

— (@)

Industry website DEI Detected reported Sweet Baby Inc. founder Kim Belair was listed as the "story architect" for the new game.

Reflector's brand content manager, David Bedard, is also in the credits. Gamers may recognize him as the co-founder of Sweet Baby Inc; therefore it should come as no surprise that the consulting agency was hired for the game.

'I'm excited for people to hopefully feel empowered by this character.'

A stunning and brave endorsement

Actress Anya Chalotra, who stars in the Netflix series "The Witcher," plays protagonist Haroona in the game. Ahead of the game's release, Chalotra likely hammered the final nail in the coffin when she said the game was the most "diverse" she had ever seen.

"I'm excited for people to hopefully feel empowered by this character who is so, so grounded, so inspired by things that are outside of herself, bigger than her," she told CG Magazine.

She added, "I don't think I've ever seen that connection to—a game as diverse as this with that many voices and that kind of exploration."

Your browser does not support the video tag. Footage by Ming Yeung/Getty Images

Chalotra also connected the game to her Indian heritage, rhetorically asking, "Why wouldn’t I want to play this character?"

"That part of myself, the Indian heritage, that part of myself to this woman of Indian descent. But not only that, there's a real sense of groundedness and authenticity that she has that I feel from my family, that I feel because of my family. I hope that's what grounds her."

All the authenticity and diversity couldn't help Unknown 9: Awakening, as it flopped even faster than Sony's Concord, which was pulled from shelves after just two weeks as fans mocked the game's forced DEI aspects, which included robots with pronouns.

Developers may be able to relish in the fact they didn't lose as much money as Warner Bros. Studios, however, as the company took a huge $200 million hit when fans scoffed at its game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

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Video game faces backlash from female gamers over focus on 'top surgery scars' and trans characters



Electronic Arts' Dragon Age: The Veilguard has received swift backlash from female game enthusiasts who are upset over the game's lack of femininity.

Typically, a video game wouldn't be prioritized for how much it appeals to women, but in the case of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, developers have seemingly gone out of their way to reject feminine qualities regarding female characters.

Ahead of its October 31 release, EA and subsidiary BioWare showcased the game's character creator for the world to see. In yet another rush to show off how inclusive a game can be, BioWare revealed that the customization features include diverse gender options.

'The new Dragon Age is a game focused on transsexuals.'

In a video uploaded to X, pronoun options are provided, including "they/them." Gender options are also added, including "nonbinary."

The same video revealed a more shocking option, the ability to show off mastectomy scars. Gamers can select on or off for "top surgery scars," which specifically refers to transgender surgeries. This is in addition to a second, more general option for scars on the player's body.

"You can call yourself a Lamborghini and choose they/them nonbinary pronouns. But that's not all! Players can now customize female characters' chests and add top surgery scars," the caption for the video read.

On the same day, game designer Mark Kern also showcased the option for the skin disease vitiligo and the ability to add cellulite.

"These are obvious fetish self-inserts being foisted on gamers," Kern wrote.

Female gamers quickly realized that the ability to feminize their characters was incredibly limited, forcing them to create masculine women even when maxing out the female characteristics.

A popular gamer who goes by MadamSavvy complained that despite being just 108 pounds, she wasn't able to achieve anything close to her female likeness in the game.

"I am a 108 lb woman who sits for 15+ hours a day ... and you're telling me this is your 100% on the bum slider?" she wrote, attaching screenshots of the options pushed to limit.

Another gamer named "Packer Girl" called the game misogynistic for not allowing feminine attributes while including the transgender surgery scars:

"[This] misogynistic development team is full on body shaming big breasted women for what? to be inclusive?" she wrote.

Natalya Sirinova was far less cordial in her critique of the game.

"The new Dragon Age is a game focused on transsexuals, she males, psychiatric disorders, crazy people, deviants, [and] hormone pill users," the angry gamer wrote.

"[You can make] your 'female' character stronger and more ripped than He-Man, without being able to give her breasts [while having] the option of making visible the scars of radical bilateral mastectomy."

The developers seemingly have no qualms about pushing radical gender theory through its game.

In June, director Corinne Busche revealed that all the companions in Dragon Age will be pansexual and able to interact romantically with each other. Busche also confirmed that the game would show nudity.

Busche, a transgender person himself, described himself on the BioWare website as a "queer trans woman."

"I transitioned during my time at BioWare," Busche wrote. "I reflect all the time on how supported and seen I felt through that process, and how lucky I am to be surrounded by people of this caliber. It really speaks to the values of this team, and their commitment to inclusion in their works and their lives."

That Park Place reported that after news circulated of the pansexual direction of the game, Busche made his X page private and removed his activist-themed bio. This included references to his preferred pronouns, being a "Trans Woman," calling himself a "Queerosexual Gendermancer," and hashtags in support of "TransRights" and "BlackLivesMatter."

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Where is the woke? Space Marine 2 leaves gender politics at the door and flies off the shelves



Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 made a bold move: It didn't force progressive politics into its narrative.

Despite a three-day window to play an early release (at a whopping $90), fans still flocked to get physical copies of Saber Interactive's latest release.

Buying physical copies of games has become a returning trend for gamers who fear updates or patches will ruin the original, non-woke versions of games they love; see Tomb Raider or Stellar Blade.

With Walmart, Best Buy, and GameStop all selling out of physical copies, digital download was the only option left for this review — at the same price, of course.

After approximately six hours of gameplay, Space Marine 2 delivered an experience that fans of the original narrative will be thankful for; it's seemingly devoid of any real-world politics. The game provides an enjoyable but sometimes hand-injuring experience while delivering on its promise of awe-inspiring hordes.

Empty walls

Playing on PS5, it's hard not to notice a significant amount of clunkiness in the controls. Compared to titles like Chivalry 2 or Doom Eternal — which is actually a next-gen upgrade — stringing together moves felt sluggish. This was definitely not expected from a game of this generation, especially one with so much hype.

Understandably, some of this movement can be attributed to the physical weight of the characters and their armor, but not all of it.

There were also some running glitches and sliding with the character, but this can probably be patched out. But this is level-one stuff that one doesn't expect to encounter at this retail price.

Invisible walls were definitely not expected, either. Some parts of the game felt entirely too linear and reminiscent of PS3/Xbox 360-era titles. The gamer will find himself attempting to jump on platforms within his reach and asking why he can't trample a plant. If you want to fall to your death, shouldn't you be able to?

Wear your gloves

Image courtesy of Focus Entertainment Press Kit

The second-highest difficulty will bring some finger pain. Switching between hundreds of enemies and, at times, single firing will test even the greatest Metal Gear Solid-tested fingers.

These hack-and-slash controls will have you pressing buttons a lot, but it's not as flashy and fast as the aforementioned Doom Eternal, during which users need to remind themselves to blink.

At the same time, the controls were underwhelming. Sometimes you are so blinded by shots and exploding bubbles of acid from afar that there is no other choice but to run in order to simply figure out what is going on. The weapon controls made it hard to move while pinpointing enemies, as the mechanics are generally over the shoulder. It feels like the user is encouraged to no-scope, yet it isn't easy to do so on most occasions.

Again, a certain level of this is acceptable due to the nature of the protagonist, but it gets annoying.

Adding to this headache was the inability to pick up ammo by walking over or near it. The press-and-hold technique is painstaking, especially when being attacked from all angles.

The user can only carry one primary weapon, one sidearm, a melee, and three grenades. This feels extremely limited, especially given that Space Marines are seemingly eight feet tall and carry 2,000 pounds.

Forgotten wokeness

Image courtesy of Focus Entertainment Press Kit

'There are no female Custodes in Space Marine 2.'

Before its release, fans were cautious about the game possibly including recent changes to the decades-old story. While it's hard to grasp how much fans truly disliked the retcon of the lore, some of the recent stories are worth noting.

As That Park Place reported in May, lore was rewritten to ensure inclusivity to females, removing the words "sons" and "men" from older texts.

Adding women into the lore through a rewriting continued in July, when Games Workshop, creators of the Warhammer figures, explained a new "revelation" that "Custodians can be any gender.”

This came with a new female character in the animated series "The Tithes."

However, none of the newly rewritten content appeared to have made it into Space Marine 2, leading fans to rejoice over the new title.

DEI Detected's Kabrutus seemingly gave the game a passing grade, saying on X, "Just to make it clear: There are no female Custodes in Space Marine 2."

Clearly the game has resonated. Space Marine 2 launched out of the gates, peaking at over 186,000 concurrent players on Steam alone in its first week.

With gamers paying close attention to which games promote progressive politics, Space Marine 2 seems to have taken that into consideration. With Concord's collapse and Star Wars Outlaws' oncoming death, it may be in developers' best interest to avoid out-of-game politics.

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Sony loses $100M after pulling DEI shooter game Concord just weeks after launch



Sony Interactive Entertainment embarrassingly shut down its new adventure shooting game Concord just 14 days into its release despite a reported eight years of production.

One month before its August 23, 2024, release, Concord, which Blaze News reported on, was officially canceled by Sony just two weeks after its debut on PC and PlayStation 5.

Sony said in a blog post that certain "aspects of the game" didn’t "land the way [they were] intended" and that Concord would be pulled from the shelves immediately. The publisher is also offering refunds to all customers.

Despite pulling the plug and offering reimbursement, Sony said it is still determining the "best path ahead" for the game. However, Concord's return seems highly implausible at this time. If the game was going to be patched or significantly changed, the studio would likely only issue a partial refund or none at all.

'We, the gaming community, don't want DEI bulls**t in our games!'

The diversity-driven product appeared to be doomed from the start; early images showed morbidly obese character models who had their pronouns displayed on-screen.

As That Park Place reported, one of the characters was an obese woman named Emari with "she/her" pronouns. Another character named Lark had "undecided" in the location where the other characters' pronouns were displayed.

"I mean, even the robot has pronouns," gamer Kabrutus, owner of DEI Detected, said in a review. The writer showed off an image of a robot in the game that had "he/him" pronouns on the character select screen.

After the cancellation, the writer encouraged gamers to "keep the pressure" on game studios that encourage the diversity, equity, and inclusion mantra.

"Let's make sure that they'll ALWAYS be aware that we, the gaming community, DON'T WANT DEI BULLS**T IN OUR GAMES!" he added.

Concord was developed over eight years by Firewalk Studios, which operates out of Washington state. Sony acquired the studio in 2023.

Sony and Firewalk never publicly released figures regarding the development costs of Concord, but as CNET reported, estimates have ranged from $100-$200 million based off budgets Sony has given to its previous first-party games.

Sony has an official commitment to DEI on its Sony Interactive website. It features at least nine internal employee diversity groups at the company. These include groups surrounding "Pride," "Representation," and "well being."

There are also ideological camps for veterans, women, and black employees.

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Tomb Raider studio censors its own game months after release, despite saying it would present content in 'original form'



An update for video game Tomb Raider III: The Lost Artefact removed polygonal photos of its main character Lara Croft, lying in provocative poses, from the background of one of its environments.

Developer Crystal Dynamics is behind the latest update, which came more than two months after the release of Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, which came out on February 14, 2024.

The apparently too-risqué pinups are reportedly based on promotional renders made for the original Tomb Raider III, and were found on the fourth level called "Sleeping with the Fishes" above a scuba diving gear locker, Bounding into Comics reported.

The first photo shows the lead character wearing her default outfit lying on a velvet background, while the second shows her covered by a bedsheet; neither shows any animated nudity of any kind.

In fact, the original game's graphics make the images barely discernable, but it is only the remastered version where the animated posters, signed by the fictional character herself, are clear.

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered's second update removed pinup posters of Lara in Tomb Raider III. Updates should never be used to retroactively censor games, it's a form of theft. Any company that engages in this bait & switch behavior should go bankrupt.
— (@)

Reports at the time of this writing stated that there was no mention of the removal in the update's patch notes, despite the company having already made a disclaimer that said it wouldn't remove content from the game.

When the game launched, fans pointed out that it booted up with a content warning about "prejudices."

"The games in this collection contain offensive depictions of people and cultures rooted in racial and ethnic prejudices. These stereotypes are deeply harmful, inexcusable, and do not align with our values at Crystal Dynamics," a prompt in the game read.

"Rather than removing this content, we have chosen to present it here in its original form, unaltered, in the hopes that we may acknowledge its harmful impact and learn from it," the warning concluded.

What\u2019s going on with the Tomb Raider Remastered Collecti\u2026.oh.
— (@)

Gamers theorized that the content warning was implemented due to characters called a "tribesman," also from the third game. The characters were purported to be from Polynesia, "shoot poison darts from blowguns," and killed and ate explorers on multiple occasions.

Celebrated game designer Mark Kern told Blaze News that the biggest concern regarding these changes is the ongoing "impermanence of digital media and the willingness of companies to censor, edit, or even remove entire games after purchase."

"Consumers deserve better protections, as our reality is edited in real time. Today it was a patch of some pinup posters, but tomorrow it will be much more. It's important to be aware of what is happening and the power we've given up to corporations to mess with things we've already paid for," he added.

The update is just days removed from stories about a Tomb Raider board game chastising its own fans and product by claiming the Lara Croft character is a result of "a world wounded by colonialism."

An excerpt from the game's manual gave a definition of the term "raiding" and then condemned it as operating on "the assumption of 'finders keepers' that grants raiders with the means and the drive to claim ownership of artefacts, regardless of whether they have any historical or cultural claim to the treasure."

Board game creator Evil Hat Productions said that it was working with Crystal Dynamics to "address colonialist themes" while creating games that "respect and support" other people and cultures.

Ideologues using beloved IPs as meatpuppets once again\nthe irony of using this as a tagline; "The Truth is hidden. The Truth is dangerous. And in the end, the power of Truth is what we make it."
— (@)

Evil Hat Productions did not respond to inquiries about the board game's manual. Crystal Dynamics was asked about the board game, as well as the decision to remove the posters from the video game.

This article will be updated with any relevant responses.

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