Two weeks ago, Arc System Works quietly removed in-game references to Tibet, Taiwan, Mongolia, Siberia, and the Uighur region from Guilty Gear Strive's in-game glossary. The change amounted to just two sentences being altered, but it was never documented in the patch notes. Fans only found out about it after a post on ResetEra noted the differences to the "International Affairs after the Crusades" glossary entry before and after the patch.
A vocal backlash against ArcSys and publisher Bandai Namco came swiftly as most assumed that the game was censored for an upcoming attempt to gain Chinese government approval. Even mentioning the words Tibet, Taiwan, or Uighur is enough to get an instant ban from Chinese censors, and fans see the undocumented change as bowing to the Chinese government.
However, one fan is fighting back against censorship. Modder KingKrouch has restored the cut references to Taiwan, Tibet, and the Uighurs thanks to the "GG-World Log 311 Decensor Mod," which you can download over on GameBanana.
"This mod restores the original Log 311 in GG-World's glossary, which restores mentions of Uighur, Tibet, Mongolia, and Siberia relating to the Chinese government, which was silently censored in a game patch," reads the mod description. KingKrouch added that the mod was created "for those who pre-ordered the game and already played enough to where they can't refund it to protest against corporations that support the human rights violations and colonization that the P.R.C. has been doing."
China's influence has become increasingly apparent in gaming. Ubisoft recently removed blood, drugs, skulls, and all references to gambling from a Rainbow Six Siege map in order to appease Chinese censors. And last year, both Steam and GOG delisted the Taiwanese horror game Devotion after a derogatory reference to Chinese president Xi Jinping was discovered. Both platforms were in the middle of expanding into the Chinese mainland at the time.
Meanwhile, kids in China aren’t able to play video games after dark thanks to facial recognition systems locking them out.