File this is in the almost unbelievable category.
Wales Interactive intended on publishing an FMV game called Gamer Girl, where you play as the moderator for a female Twitch streamer. The game’s reveal trailer, embedded below, was posted on PlayStation’s social media channels but has now been removed from both the publisher and PlayStation’s channels after the game was instantly slammed on all corners of the internet.
The game was set to follow a moderator of a streamer, who is heavily featured in the trailer, that goes by the name of ‘Abicake99’. As her channel moderator, you were set to make decisions about the posts in her chat, have a personal relationship with her through DMs, and the like.
Things get dark pretty quickly in the trailer, with Abicake getting harassed by a predator, with things tumbling into horror fairly quickly. The game’s press release referred to movies such as Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project.
Obviously, the reason why the game is being slammed is the fact that not only is the game’s title extremely offensive, the contents plays into a lot of negative stereotypes that are used against female streamers/gamers.
The game’s publisher tweeted out the below:
“Gamer Girl is about the impact user comments and actions have on a streamer’s mental health and wellbeing. The reason why FMV Future created the game was to raise the issue of the toxic environment which can often appear online behind the anonymity of a username…”
Gamer Girl is about the impact user comments and actions have on a streamer’s mental health and wellbeing. The reason why FMV Future created the game was to raise the issue of the toxic environment which can often appear online behind the anonymity of a username…
— Wales Interactive (@WalesInter) July 16, 2020
It’s unclear at this point what the future for the game looks like. It was supposed to be releasing in September for PC, Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One but the publisher hasn’t really taken too well to the criticism, and it’s unclear if they’ll release it in the current state or at all.
