Brotaku

Earlier this week IGN France posted a preview of Sony Interactive Entertainment and SHIFT-UP’s Stellar Blade, in which the author went on to insult the game’s director.

Ben Ossola, the original writer of the piece, claimed that Eve, the protagonist of the Stellar Blade, was “obviously” created by someone who has never seen a real woman.

Not too long after the preview was posted it was pointed out by smaller media outlets and independent video game personalities that Kim Hyung-tae, the director of Stellar Blade, is actually married to a prolific female artist.

A quick Google search reveals all this pretty easily but yet IGN Frace, supposedly one of the authorities in gaming, was unable to discern even the most basic details about the director.

Ossola also went on to claim that Eve was a sexualised doll that was designed solely to be a pleasing view for males, comparing her to 2B of NieR: Automata and Bayonetta.

It’s noting that whilst Ossola and IGN France attempt to rewrite history, both NieR: Automata and Bayonetta were heavily criticized by the mainstream media for being overly sexualised.

Upon widespread criticism toward these claims Ossola made his social media accounts private, something “journalists” seem to enjoy doing when getting called out. He and IGN France later went on to block several accounts that voiced concern over the reporting.

IGN France however did go on to do a pathetic edit of the original piece, changing “someone who hasn’t seen a real woman” to “someone you would think has never seen a woman”.

IGN France also removed Ben Ossola’s name from the piece, changing it to the IGN France Team all whilst claiming that the post was edited due to translation issues and because an “English Mob” who misread the original text. IGN France also claimed that Ossola received several death threats but provided no proof.

This statement from IGN France was heavily criticised by French gamers and media who called it a pathetic attempt at deflection.

Fast forward a mere two days after the widespread backlash and we have IGN’s global office making an official apology to SHIFT-UP and any of its employees that were offended by the comments from Ossola and IGN France.

IGN has distanced itself from IGN France and Ossola, claiming that it and IGN’s editorial staff had nothing to do with these claims. IGN also called the statements from its French division out of place that it had no intention of offending anyone from SHIFT-UP.

Whilst this apology may seem like a win there is a small part that is a bit concerning. IGN claim that “the sentence taken in its literal sense was out of place and we regret it”. This part makes it seem like this isn’t really an apology after all, at the very least it doesn’t seem like they understand why so many people were upset.

It could end up coming off as a little pretentious, almost as if they are trying to say “We’re sorry you took it that way”. Personally, I don’t see any sense in which the statement from IGN France is not offensive and inappropriate.

Stellar Blade is due out on the 26th of April 2024 for the PlayStation 5. It is currently the most pre-ordered game in almost all PSN regions.

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