Gamers furious over character removal
Concern over upsetting animal rights activists has prompted the removal of a boxing kangaroo in the Western version of Tekken 7.
IT’S a bit of a tongue-in-cheek imagining of our country’s favourite marsupial, but the image of the boxing kangaroo is as Australian as Vegemite.
But sadly for Aussie lovers of popular fighting franchise Tekken, they won’t be able to use a boxing kangaroo character in the latest version of the game, thanks to outraged animal rights activists.
Campaigners from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) reportedly took umbrage with the inclusion of Roger Jr., aka the boxing kangaroo, in the game. As a result he has been removed from the Western version of Tekken 7, reports PCgamer.com.
And according to the game’s executive producer, Katsuhiro Harada, the issue stems from one of the most memorable (and controversial) viral videos to emerge in recent months
That’s right — the NSW man who punched the kangaroo to protect his dog.
Speaking to VG24/7 at a press event, he said he believed the controversy that surrounded the video heightened the sensitivity of animal rights activists, prompting them to complain about the Roger Jr. character which replaced the dinosaur-like reptile character named Alex from Tekken 5 onward.
“There was a video of a man’s dog in a headlock by a kangaroo, and he punched it in the face. It turned into a big problem. People were complaining about him punching a kangaroo. It seems that in the last few years there’s a lot more animal activists — even though they probably wouldn’t play our game, they would still hear about that, about a kangaroo in our game being punched, and would complain about it,” he said.
Plenty of gamers have expressed their frustration on social media.
SERIOUSLY? #gamergate
‘Animal activists’ get boxing kangaroo Roger Jr removed from western Tekken 7 https://t.co/YmeucEu9uz
— Kukuruyo (@kukuruyo) April 27, 2017
Is this serious or am I getting massively trolledhttps://t.co/GYeG542uju
— Damascus (@zDamascus) April 27, 2017
This needs to stop. @Peta cares more about virtual animals THAT AREN’T REAL than the animals it euthanizes daily.https://t.co/4Vx047fQ3J
— Bastendorf, Game Dev (@BastendorfGames) April 27, 2017
Tekken 7 has been out in Japan for close to two years now, but isn’t due to be released in Western markets until June.
It goes without saying that nobody should ever condone or normalise violence against animals.
But at the risk of invoking the tired “political correctness gone mad” phrase, surely this is a little bit of overkill?
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