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'Injustice 2' Dev Apologises For Encouraging Players To Beat Up Queer Character

Imogen Donovan

Published 

'Injustice 2' Dev Apologises For Encouraging Players To Beat Up Queer Character

Featured Image Credit: NetherRealm

NetherRealm has issued a statement on its Pride event in the mobile version of Injustice 2,, which rubbed a number of people up the wrong way for a very good reason.

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As a free-to-play version of the original game for PC and consoles, Injustice 2 has been downloaded over ten million times since its launch four years ago. Not too shabby a shift, if I do say so. The gameplay is very similar to the original, with swipe-based combat, card collection, and 3v3 fights, and the story mode receives refreshers that roll out in updates. Victories in battle allow players to unlock gear that will give them the edge, and daily challenges and log-in bonuses ensure that the community progresses together. Of course, there's a massive social aspect to Injustice 2, which encourages players to work together to assemble an amazing league of characters to stop villains in their tracks.

June is an absolutely action-packed month for the games industry. Sometimes it feels like your head will come clean off swivelling from one announcement to the other. Luckily for you, we've got a round up of the latest news right here.

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The game's Global Challenge to celebrate Pride was to defeat Poison Ivy hundreds of thousands of times, and players would receive Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy tokens for their efforts. This is a reference to Poison Ivy's relationship with the supervillainess and the character is also canonically bisexual in the comic books. Players took offence at the fact that the way that the game was celebrating Pride was through the attacking one of its non-heteronormative characters. Honestly, did no one flag this as a possible issue before the event went live? "That's f*cking hilariously tone deaf," said DominicanGlory on Resetera. "They could have easily had an event with wins as Poison Ivy but instead they did the worst possible option," added Kalor.

The original tweet announcing the Global Challenge has been deleted by the social media staff for Injustice 2 on mobiles and a statement responding to the criticism has been issued instead. "Real life violence against the LGBTQIA+ community and women within that community in particular is all too common and we should actively engage in efforts to end LGBTQIA+ violence, not normalise it," explained NetherRealm, calling the event "insensitive and inappropriate" for its themes. "We apologise to the greater community, but especially LGBTQIA+ members. We are committed to listening and doing better." Players who have earned rewards from the Global Challenge will not have them taken away, and their lot will be sent to their accounts tomorrow once the challenge is over.

Topics: News, Injustice, DC

Imogen Donovan
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