Starbound developer Chucklefish has announced that the game's production has been delayed by one day due to members of the studio's staff helping authorities to catch a sexual predator in the game's community who has been targeting children.
Speaking on Twitter, the game's developers explained:
Delaying development to deal with a sexual predator targeting children. Just in case anyone is wondering
— Tiy (@Tiyuri) February 9, 2014
@Beachil @Tiyuri No. It's not. :/ Some of us were set back a day having to deal with the shit surrounding reporting it to the police, etc.
— Michael Reilly (@OmnipotentEntit) February 9, 2014
People asking for elaboration, we're working with authorities to deal with someone that's been using the community to target kids
— Tiy (@Tiyuri) February 9, 2014
Not a big delay, just a day for one developer, for those asking
— Tiy (@Tiyuri) February 10, 2014
On Reddit, developer Tiyuri offered further clarification and said the game's full release will not be affected:
"The person in question has been permanently banned and we're looking into how to proceed re: involving authorities. To clarify, it's not a serious "We're delaying the game!" sort of deal, but situations like this do distract from actual game development.
There are a lot of underage people on our forums. If someone is messaging you in private in a way that's making you uncomfortable (especially in a sexual way), you can always message me or another staff member and we'll look into it and handle it."
Starbound is currently in Steam Early Access beta and is set for full release on PC, Linux, Mac, PS4, and PS Vita later this year. Whether the predator is able to play the game behind bars is another matter entirely.
