Last week, Ion Fury launched and turned out to be a great game. Lovingly crafted to replicate the 90s era of first-person shooters, it’s something I would easily recommend to anybody with an interest in retro gaming and action titles. Sadly, not all that glitters is gold. Over the weekend, attention turned away from the shooter to the developer behind it; specifically, members of the development team who were found making offensive statements on its public Discord server.
As pointed out by ResetEra user Twenty5Thousand, a developer going by the handle “Terminx” posted sexist comments in its Discord while also saying Ion Fury contained “no feminist slant.” The user also took a swipe at so-called “SJWs”, saying a lot of them were “fucking nuts.” ResetEra users also found another developer going by the name Daedalon attacking trans people using abhorrent transphobic stereotypes.
Making matters worse, ResetEra user Flapjack21 found a hidden room containing a homophobic slur within Ion Fury. Tucked away behind various walls and accessed by using the noclip cheat (which allows one to walk through objects), you can find the message that reads like the angry scrawlings of a mad man. While Ion Fury does contain a joke that may be uncomfortable for some (Shelly makes a quip about flaming zombies “coming out of the closet”), this is clearly a targeted insult at someone for their sexuality.
In wake of these findings, both 3D Realms and Voidpoint have issued statements to Eurogamer about the incident. 3D Realms boss Mike Nielsen told the publication:
Source: Destructoid 3D Realms and Voidpoint issue apologies for Ion Fury developer’s transphobic/sexist comments