Back in early 2019, we got the release of a psychological horror game that received countless praises online, Devotion. The video game was a horror title that combined Taiwanese folklore into a hell-fueled nightmare. As a result, the video game was a big hit in both critics and fans alike. However, it was a short-lived video game release as the studio was forced into pulling the title after one Easter Egg was unearthed in the campaign.
If you’re not familiar with the history of Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping and Winnie the Pooh then you might have been really baffled over the game being taken down. Over the years, there have been plenty of memes created online that compared Xi Jinping and Winnie the Pooh, much to the displeasure of Jinping. Without getting too much into politics, the leader of China has been banning all references to Winnie the Pooh.
As a result, when Red Candle Games, a Taiwanese game studio, released Devotion, they left in a small Easter Egg. It was an art piece found in the game which again, compares the leader of China to Winnie the Pooh. When the image was discovered, there was a ton of review bombs for the game and it even cost the studio their business license. This resulted in the studio in removing the game from marketplaces online and fans have been left waiting for Devotion to return.
We don’t know if the game will ever make a return, though it seems that the studio could pull it off if there was edits made that removed all of the Easter Eggs. While the marketplaces may not have a copy of the game to distribute, one massive organization has one to preserve. Harvard University has included the title in the Harvard-Yenching Library. This will help preserve the game for years to come and it’s something that Red Candle Games highlighted on their official Twitter account.
Again, while we don’t know if Devotion will ever return, it seems that Red Candle Games is not going anywhere. Within the tweet that alerted their followers that the game would be preserved, they also made note that they will continue to develop video game titles with the same level of passion as they did with Devotion.
