Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened With Unusual Competition; Players Dividied
Ukrainian studio Frogwares conducted a controversial promotional campaign on Kickstarter. Heavy artillery went into action, aimed at Russia.
Ukrainian studio Frogwares is slowly closing the fundraiser for Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened - a remake of the game from 2006 under the same title. The account already has $220,000, which is three times the planned amount. The campaign will end on September 3, so the amount may still increase. All the more so because Frogwares decided to end the collection with a bang, involving their friends from the military in the advertising activities. This decision caused a lot of controversy.
Developers under fire
The Kickstarter fundraiser gained additional attention with yesterday's post on Twitter. The message from the developers, along with a short video, which turned out to be the main source of the controversy, can be found below:
The message sparked a huge discussion, suggesting that the Ukrainian studio supports open conflict instead of diplomacy. Quite a few supporters of pacifism are against such moves, because, in their view, a bullet with "silly text" has a not inconsiderable chance of doing harm to civilians. On the other side of the barricade are supporters of the action, who believe that fierce repulsion of the enemy can help shorten the duration of the war and thus save many civilians. The issue has gained publicity, so Frogwares decided to publish an official announcement:
"Please understand that we as a team are literally at the center of this war. We have people on our team whose homes have been reduced to rubble. Some of us have lost relatives. Some of us are in occupied areas, such as Kherson, where the other side is trying to annex the city to say that it is now an area belonging to Russia. We have people who lived near Bucha. There are people who fled their homes in the Donbass in 2014 and then had to flee again in 2022. Some are actively fighting, others were forced to flee to EU countries and leave their families who could not leave with them. [...] The soldiers in the video, who supported the fundraiser, are our close friends. Six months ago they were normal people living in Kiev, with normal jobs, homes and families. After February 24, they decided they had to leave it all behind and started defending their homes and families," the studio wrote.
However, many users keep protesting, to which the developers do not remain deaf. However, everything indicates that the action will be brought to a conclusion without hindrance. After all, Kickstarter prohibits the organization of collections with the theme of "Weapons, replica weapons and weapon accessories"., which in this case nevertheless has nothing to do with the content.
The release of Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened in 2023 - we know the details.
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened will appear on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch in February 2023. The plot of the Lovecraftian horror adventure game is set in 1884. The title is based on the classic formula of games starring Sherlock Holmes: we visit various locations, where we attempt to solve mysterious criminal cases.. A month ago, the developers published a trailer, as well as official system requirements.
