Polish games firm CD Projekt is in hot water again.
This time it's not about its recently-launched Cyberpunk 2077, but rather is over the decision of its GOG storefront to not sell Red Candle Games' Devotion, days before this was meant to go live.
Yesterday (Wednesday, December 16th), at 10am UK time, the studio tweeted saying that it would be bringing its controversial title to GOG on December 18th. Just over five hours later, GOG announced that it would not be selling the game.
"Earlier today, it was announced that the game Devotion is coming to GOG," the storefront said.
"After receiving many messages from gamers, we have decided not to list the game in our store."
In response, Red Candle said that it found the decision "regretful" but also explained that it was "willing to understand and respect" the choice that GOG had made. The studio also apologised to players for the situation.
Devotion was originally launched on Steam back in February 2019, with the game being review bombed shortly after. This seems to be due to a placeholder piece of art featuring Winnie the Pooh, imagery that is often used to mock China's president Xi Jinping, making it into the final version of the Taiwanese studio's game.
Later that year, Red Candle said that the incident had caused "immeasurable harm" to the studio. It's likely that the damage done with the Chinese audience is likely behind GOG's decision to not sell the game.
Devotion was added – alongside the developer's previous release, Detention – to the Harvard library.