The developers of Ion Fury make the decision to remove homophobic remarks in the game

In a new post on Steam from Richard & Terminx & # 39; Goblin – lead developer on Ion Fury – a joint statement was shared between Voidpoint and 3D Realms, stating that they would not delete any homophobic content from Fury's Ion, counteracting what had been stated previously. the developers made transphobic and sexist remarks in their Discord channel. The statement reads below:

"Joint Statement of Voidpoint and 3D Realms:

We provoked a recent controversy suggesting that the content of the game Ion Fury should be censored.

We are NOT going to censor Ion Fury or any of our other games, now or in the future, including, but not limited to, removing gags such as the most controversial wash of the game.

We do not support the censorship of creative works of any kind and regret our initial decision to change a sprite in the game instead of trusting our instinct. 3D Realms and Voidpoint are united on this issue.

Last but not least, respect our need to keep our community forums free of hate messages, spam or off-topic topics. We recognize our mistake and have received your message loud and clear! "

3D Realms then gave its own statement confirming that Voidpoint would always donate to the Trevor project and take awareness training. "However, the bottle of soap will not be removed."

Here is the complete statement of 3D Realms below:

"At 3D Realms, we spoke with Voidpoint today and they reaffirmed their commitment to respect their original statement, including the donation to the Trevor project and awareness training." However, the bottle of soap will not be withdrawn.

The use of the word "f * gbag" in an inaccessible area without hacking the game, and which was added by a developer without the permission of someone else, was removed a few days ago. We apologize again for this text because it does not reflect the values ​​of 3D Realms or Voidpoint.

Jokes at the expense of marginalized communities will not be present in future games released by 3D Realms. However, part of our community has made it clear that it believes that eliminating "Ogay" was a matter of censorship and should be protected by freedom of expression. Voidpoint wanted to listen and we respected that decision. "

Original story follows:

Voidpoint, the developers behind Ion Fury, apologized after the revelation that the team had made sexist and transphobic statements in the Discord developer chain. The team has also added a homophobic language in Ion Fury itself. In a pair of statements from Voidpoint and the 3D Realms publisher, the two companies announced that they would correct the offending language of the game. Voidpoint promised to contribute $ 10,000 to the non-profit project. LGBT, The Trevor Project.

Over the weekend, discussions on the Resetera discussion thread of the Voidpoint Discord forum showed Ion Fury developers some disparaging statements about the LGBT community, especially the trans community.

Terminx, lead developer at Ion Fury, writes in a screenshot: "Yes, if you are trying to decide that your child is trans at birth, you have mental problems and probably should not be a parent. [in my opinion]. "In another screencap, a developer other than Ion Fury, Daedolon, asks:"[B]mutilate a perfectly healthy body while you suffer from depression and other serious mental problems [cause suicides]? "

IGN contacted the Realism editions of Voidpoint and Ion Fury about the validity of these Discord discussion conversations, and Voidpoint responded that this was the case in a statement. Voidpoint also admitted to adding a homophobic language to the game itself.

"Voidpoint's Ion Fury team members made sexist and transphobic comments and included homophobic language in Ion Fury," Voidpoint writes.

In a full statement, the developers apologized for their comments and pledged to donate $ 10,000 from the proceeds of Ion Fury's release day to the Trevor project. Here is the complete Voidpoint statement below:

"We recognize that these statements are insensitive, unacceptable and go against the causes of equality. We apologize unequivocally for these comments and comments, as well as for the suffering they have caused the community of players, especially women and members of the LGBTQ community. Full responsibility for any damage to the relationships for which we have worked so hard.

In the future, Voidpoint will introduce a zero-tolerance policy for this type of language and all employees and contractors will undergo mandatory awareness training. As part of our efforts to contribute to the work that needs to be done to further support these communities, we are donating $ 10,000 from the proceeds of the Ion Fury release day to The Trevor Project. We also correct Ion Fury as soon as possible to remove any unacceptable language. "

The 3D Realms editor of Ion Fury also issued a statement in which he stated that in the future, 3D Realms will break relations with any developer who violates the Zero Tolerance Policy of the society in hate speech.

"We learned that Voidpoint, developers of Ion Fury, were accused of making transphobic and misogynistic statements and included a homophobic language in the game, which was not approved by we.

Under the current leadership, 3D Realms is proud to empower marginalized groups, as evidenced by our strong female protagonist Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison and the makeup of our team.

All 3D Realms contracts will include terms that allow us to terminate relationships if a contractor fails to comply with our zero tolerance policy on hate speech, and Ion Fury will be corrected as soon as possible to eliminate unacceptable language. "

Ion Fury was released on August 15, 2019 for PC and uses the EDuke32 engine. This is a branch of the Build Engine that has been used to develop classic 90s FPS games such as Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood. Ion Fury was previously titled Ion Maiden before the Iron Maiden band threatened to sue for infringement of intellectual property.

Matt Kim is a journalist for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.