NetherRealm Studios issues apology for inappropriate Injustice 2 Pride event where players had to beat up a bisexual woman
NetherRealm Studios has posted an apology on its Twitter account for what can only be described as an inappropriate way to celebrate Pride Month.
The developer released a challenge event in its mobile fighting game, Injustice 2 Mobile, in which players were invited to beat up Poison Ivy, a DC Comics character who has been portrayed as canonically bisexual, in the name of "love and friendship". More recently, she has been depicted as being in a relationship with Harley Quinn, another villain from the DC universe.
Injustice 2 Mobile regularly holds these types of challenge events to bring players back to the game, but the fact this was announced as part of a Pride Month celebration does raise a few eyebrows.
“Ah, the beloved pride celebration of repeatedly punching a barely clothed bi woman in the face,” sarcastically wrote one ResetEra poster under a now-deleted promotional tweet (via Kotaku). “That’s f****** hilariously tone deaf,” wrote another user.pic.twitter.com/jZejuTr1Jf — Injustice 2 Mobile (@Injustice2Go) June 4, 2021
NetherRealm quickly took down the event and associated social media posts once this was pointed out, issuing an apology on Twitter later on.
“We recognise associating our latest Global Challenge with Pride was insensitive and inappropriate,” the developer posted on the Injustice 2 Mobile Twitter account. “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. We apologise to the greater community, but especially LGBTQIA+ members. We are committed to listening and doing better.”
Prior to the event being taken down, the community had amassed around 175,000 Poison Ivy takedowns of Poison Ivy.
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