Injustice 2 Publisher Warner Bros. Games Has apologized for his clay pigeon Pride month Challenge for the mobile version of the fighting game in which players had to beat up a queer DC Comics character, Poison Ivy.
The injustice 2 mobile The developer released a global challenge called Love Conquers All earlier this month and called the challenge a pride party, where players have to defeat Poison Ivy together. The idea is to get people into the mobile version of Injustice 2 work together to win special rewards – the more times you defeat Poison Ivy, the more prizes the collective group wins. For beating Poison Ivy 500,000 times during Pride month, the players would have received the greatest reward.
Poison Ivy is a canonically bisexual character who was most recently romantically linked to Harley Quinn along with other DC characters. For example, DC pride, an 80-page anthology by DC Comics, is a special edition that celebrates queer characters – in particular there is a story about Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. (It’s also ironic that the Injustice 2 cell phone Challenge urged players to team up with Harley Quinn to take out their lover – a bizarre way of paying homage to the queer relationship.)
“We recognize that it was insensitive and inappropriate to associate our latest Global Challenge with Pride,” said the developer – with a Twitter profile photo with a rainbow flag – in a tweet on Thursday. “Real life violence against the LGBTQIA + community, and especially women within that community, is all too common and we should actively seek to end, not normalize, LGBTQIA + violence. We apologize to the larger community, but especially to LGBTQIA + members. We strive to listen and do better. “
Warner Bros. has since removed the tweet that boasted that players had defeated Poison Ivy 175,000 times. The news for the event stayed in-game on Friday morning promoting the Global Challenge and its rewards, as well as a notification for a free Pride celebration gift – a Champion Pack with broken pieces to unlock new characters. (Batwoman, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern, four characters portrayed as LGBTQ are on offer.) An in-game Pride sale Injustice 2 cell phone
The badly received Injustice 2 Cell phone, mobile phone Promotion comes when the communities discuss the place Corporate participation in Pride Month. There’s no shortage of rainbow-colored merchandise from brands – including the video game industry. While some believe it is nice to see “symbolic support,“As Vox put it, others find the promotions for queer communities superficial; many of these companies are often criticized for having policies or initiatives actively harmful to the LGBTQ + community.
The Injustice 2 cell phone Pride Global Challenge epitomizes that belief: slap it a rainbow and you’re good to go – no critical thinking about how the action might affect the community it claims to support.
Polygon contacted Warner Bros. Games for more information on how this promotion came about.