Scum Team Removes Neo-Nazi Tattoo Option

Neo-Nazi imagery has been removed from Scum after negative community feedback.

Publisher Devolver Digital and developers Gamepires have now removed a tattoo option available in their recently released survival game Scum. The two groups have also issued apologies for its inclusion and its depiction of neo-nazism.

Scum is a survival game centered around a group of the world's worst criminals being dropped into a restricted zone for a reality show. The game included a $10 Supporter Pack, which included character customization. Among these options is an iron cross with a skull, as well as the numbers 14 and 88. After receiving enough feedback, the team has decided to remove the tattoos and will be reviewing the rest of their content to be more mindful of offensiveness.



Gamepires explained that they had originally included the content to best portray the awful nature of the criminals present in the game. Racist, offensive, and otherwise vulgar tattoos are not uncommon with real-world prisoners. Though with the imagery clearly present in active gameplay left more folks upset than immersed.

"Our intention was to create an atmosphere of the worst of the worst criminals in Scum, and to portray the horrible type of people who would find themselves in a 'fight to the death' situation for a futuristic reality show where the worst criminals are pitted against one another.
. . .
Since our initial response on our forums we've discussed this as a team and with our publisher and agree wholeheartedly that this content was unnecessary, should not have been included, and have removed it. We apologise for this misstep and promise to our fans that we will take more caution in our approach moving forward."

Despite this, Scum has seen a rather successful launch. The game has sold over 250,000 copies on their first day, which is a first for a Devolver published product.