Ion Fury Retracts Apology, Refuses to "Censor" Tasteless Jokes

So last week, Ion Fury developer Voidpoint made the news – not because their game was so good, but because it contained some rather racy jokes against homosexuals and other members of the LGBT community. Combined with some rather controversial claims and statements made on the game’s official discord server, both Voidpoint and their publisher, 3D Realms, issued an apology, vowed to remove the content, and donate 10,000 bucks to the Trevor Project. Good times all around.

But the good times were not to last. Because in response to this, the usual cavalcade of internet buttheads swarmed Steam and started review-bombing the game for “caving” to the “SJWs”. Over 400 negative reviews were posted over the weekend, which state things like:
 

“If I could refund this game at this point, I would. I would because, despite being a wonderful game and something I’ve dreamed since FPSs all turned into generic ‘Call of Dutys,’ I won’t EVER support a company that caves in to the cries of the oh-so-oppressed boo-hoo snowflakes.”

Now, most studios tend to take this kind of review-bombing in stride. But let’s not forget that the Ion Fury folks actually seem politically aligned with the people doing the complaining, based on their statements on discord. So regardless of if this came out of a place of genuine concern for sales, or an excuse to backtrack, Ion Fury lead developer Richard Gobeille has officially retracted his apology and vows to never change his game due to ‘censorship’.
 

“We will absolutely NOT be censoring Ion Fury or any of our other games, now or in the future, including but not limited to by removing gags such as gaming’s most controversial facial wash.

We do not support censorship of creative works of any kind and regret our initial decision to alter a sprite in the game instead of trusting our instincts. 3D Realms and Voidpoint stand together on this matter.”

This was followed by an urge to keep the discussion civil and free from hate. An urge that was promptly ignored by the community, judging by the comments that followed. And of course, now that they’ve retracted their statements, more liberally-minded people who applauded the change are now complaining and negatively reviewing the game, although they seem to be far less passionate and vocal about it than the people who complained about censorship.

So. That turned into a hot mess in a hurry. But at least they’re still donating to the Trevor Project.