GOG pulls insensitive tweet, says it 'should focus on games'

GOG has pulled and addressed a tweet that co-opted a transgender awareness hashtag for promotional purposes. 

The digital storefront did not apologise for its insensitive use of #WontBeErased—a hashtag and rallying cry adopted by transgender rights activists following recent reports that the Trump administration plans to reverse Obama-era recognitions of gender fluidity—instead saying it "should focus only on games."

The original tweet has since been deleted, but was captured and shared on social media beforehand. GOG said: "Classic PC games #WontBeErased on our watch. Yeah, how's that for some use of hashtags?"

GOG's response, posted earlier today, reads: "Yesterday, we posted a tweet containing a trending hashtag as a pun," the response read. "The tweet was neither intended as a malicious attack, nor as a comment to the ongoing social debate.

"GOG should focus only on games. We acknowledge that and we commit to it."

In July this year, GOG apologised for the following GamerGate-related tweet—also subsequently deleted. 

And in September, the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account apologised for a tweet that appeared to make reference to a transphobic meme (CD Projekt owns both Cyberpunk 2077's developer CD Projekt Red and GOG). 

The offiZombie Orpheus Entertainment, which has films including JourneQuest and The Gamers: Director's Cut available on GOG, has now cancelled its contract with the platform and requested that its products be removed immediately.   

The latest tweet tops a disappointing year for GOG on Twitter. Social media teams may not represent the views of each individual working at the company, but as the front-facing point of contact, they are able to alienate customers with messages that can be considered, at best, to be accidentally insensitive.

Update: Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, which has films including JourneyQuest and The Gamers: Director's Cut available on GOG, has now cancelled its contract with the platform and requested that its products be removed immediately.   

"We affirm that the ZOE community is a place where all are welcome, regardless of sexuality, race, gender, or any other categories that are used to divide and oppress," the company tweeted. "We further affirm that hate speech is not welcome here." 

Zombie Orpheus invited everyone who owns its films on GOG to contact it for free replacement copies on other platforms.