Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 developer Warhorse Studios has responded to controversy surrounding the game involving LGBTQ scenes in the RPG. The start of the controversy begins in Saudi Arabia, where it is being reported by VGA4A that the highly anticipated RPG has been banned from release “due to unskippable gay scenes.” These reports then prompted inquiries from some — fueled by the ongoing culture war in gaming — about these scenes. And then the controversy grew from here with accusations that Warhorse Studios began to crack down on the backlash and feedback with forum bans and a new code of conduct. It’s become one of the biggest talking points in gaming this week, and is now at the center of the aforementioned culture war in gaming.
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All of this prompted Daniel Vavra — the co-founder of Warhorse Studios and the creative director on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 — to issue a statement on the matter. The statement doesn’t address the scenes in question, not directly at least, nor the extra controversy involving the forum bans and new code of conduct, but tackles it from a more zoomed out perspective.
“Turns out that we are once again in the middle of a rather bizarre ‘culture war,’ this time from the opposite side than usual,” writes Vavra. “So here’s a statement, but I’d hate to spoil the plot of the game for the sake of it.”
The statement reads: “The game is exactly what I wanted it to be. No one has tried to influence me as an artist in any way, and anyone who knows me knows I wouldn’t let them anyway. Every character in the game has a very clear reason to be where they are, which you’ll understand when you play the game. Our goal was, and still is, to show life in
medieval Bohemia as it easily could have happened and to tell an interesting story.”
The statement continues: “At the same time, it is a ROLE PLAYING GAME, so it is purely up to the player what decisions they make and for all the decisions they make, they are responsible for the consequences that correspond to the morals and social norms of the time. I don’t want to spoil the plot, the important events and the roles of some of the characters for anyone, so you’ll have to see for yourself by playing the game and then | strongly believe you’ll agree with me.”
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Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is set to release worldwide on February 4, 2025 via PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. It remains to be seen if this controversy will have a negative impact on the game’s sales. So far, games that have been sucked into the gaming culture war have suffered for it, but this incident hasn’t blown up too much, which could lead to it having minimal impact.
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