Welcome to modern gaming, where games are increasingly built as political propaganda masquerading as entertainment. The real issue arises when these radically left-leaning studios are shocked to find that players aren’t interested in their subpar products.
Dustborn needs no introduction, the indie game from Norway garnered nothing but negative attention upon release, primarily due to its focus on a diverse cast of characters, including a ugly Black female protagonist and representation of various marginalized identities.
The game featured characters such as androgynous fat women with vitiligo and a flamboyant pansexual non-binary individual. This emphasis on inclusivity and progressive themes was met with praise from gaming journalists, who generally awarded the game solid, though moderate, scores, often around 7 out of 10.
Despite the critical praise, Dustborn unsurprisingly failed to gain traction with the actual gaming audience. Its player base remained low, peaking at just 83 concurrent players on Steam.
It’s clear that the game primarily gained attention through social media, where it was often mocked for its overt focus on aligning with corporate ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) priorities.
With its character design heavily emphasizing racial and sexual inclusivity, the game struggled to resonate with a broader gaming audience, leading to criticism that it prioritized these elements over engaging gameplay, ultimately failing to capture the interest of players.
The game’s launch was met with widespread mockery on social media, as gamers sarcastically celebrated its disastrous debut. Dustborn featured mechanics like the ability to “Cancel” opponents during battles, bully enemies, and “normalize” negative emotions, which many felt satirized modern feminism and leftist ideology.
The protagonist of Dustborn is portrayed as an entitled and abrasive character, often lashing out at those around her for trivial reasons. While intended to be a strong, independent Black woman, she comes across as a flat, uninteresting stereotype, lacking depth and nuance.
Her claim to stand against all forms of bigotry and her opposition to fascism feel hollow, especially given the contradiction between her beliefs and her actions. Her use of abilities like “Cancel,” “Gaslight,” “Trigger,” “Bully,” “Normalize,” and “Hoax” against enemies makes her appear more authoritarian and oppressive than the Justice dictatorship she opposes. Ironically, she even exhibits bigotry toward robots, further undermining her supposed anti-fascist stance.
These developers are entirely sincere in their approach, incorporating abilities like gaslighting and calling opponents racist in a game where the cast predominantly consisted of marginalized characters, and straight White people were portrayed as antagonists.
After Dustborn’s troubled release, it was discovered that the game had been partially funded by the Norwegian government through the Ministry of Culture. Red Thread Games received 14 million Norwegian Krone from the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI) since 2019, along with an additional 150,000 euros from an EU grant.
This sparked criticism that the game was essentially government-funded propaganda. The controversy deepened when players discovered that certain interior design elements had been copied from Grand Theft Auto Online.
One of the game’s developers, who self-identifies as a “gay agenda connoisseur,” further fueled the backlash by openly laughing about the situation on Twitter, drawing even more attention to the plagiarism scandal.
Dustborn came and went without much notice, standing as one of 2024’s many commercial failures, particularly for its heavy-handed promotion of progressive ideology in a video game. Despite this, Red Thread Games continued to spend government funding in an effort to market the game to disinterested consumers.
This included financing a trip to the Tokyo Game Show, held from September 26th to 29th, where the company attempted to introduce Dustborn to a Japanese audience. However, their small booth, managed by the CEO, garnered little attention, marking yet another failed attempt to generate interest in the game.
Despite facing significant financial challenges, companies like Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, and SEGA have chosen not to adjust their strategies. Instead, they have doubled down on pushing radical ideologies, prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives over gameplay, along with implementing censorship and removing traditional male and female terminology.
This shift reflects a broader trend within the gaming industry, where companies appear more focused on political agendas than on creating engaging content.
The industry has increasingly been influenced not just by corporate funding from entities like BlackRock, but also by left-leaning employees and radical feminist voices who appear openly hostile to the gamer community and its values. Failure is often celebrated, as narcissism seems to dominate the mindset of these developers.
Ragnar Tørnquist, the CEO of Red Thread Games, was recently seen overseeing his booth at the 2023 Tokyo Game Show, where Dustborn struggled to attract attention.
In the wake of the game’s poor performance, Tørnquist shared his thoughts in an interview with Gamer.NO, which ran a sympathetic piece titled “Dustborn dev opens up after brutal launch: ‘Caught us completely off guard.‘” The article attempted to provide damage control for the game’s disappointing reception.
The article is steeped in self-pity, with Ragnar Tørnquist failing to acknowledge the real reasons for his woke indie game Dustborn’s lack of success. Instead of facing the criticisms head-on, Tørnquist portrays himself as the victim, seeking sympathy from the same politically active online community that supports his ideology but did little to financially support Red Thread Games.
According to him and Gamer.NO, Dustborn was the target of a harassment campaign built on “conspiracy theories.”
Tørnquist claims that creating games is his passion, yet Dustborn, widely criticized for its over-the-top satire of modern leftist themes, was met with a harsh reception. The game’s opening sequence, where a group of tokenized characters sings a heartfelt song about refugees, racism, and politics was panned as heavy-handed and cringeworthy.
Despite the overwhelmingly negative feedback, Tørnquist said he was “very surprised” by the backlash, stating that it caught him and his team “completely off guard.” Instead of reflecting on the game’s flaws, the narrative pushed in the article frames Dustborn’s failure as the result of external hostility rather than its own shortcomings.
This mirrors the situation with Sony’s live-service shooter Concord, a game featuring uninspired, overly “inclusive” character designs that ended up costing the company hundreds of millions. These types of games, created by radical left-leaning developers, suffer from what can be described as “toxic positivity.”
They’re crafted by individuals who view the world through a distorted ideological lens, surrounded by like-minded colleagues who act as echo chambers. Critical feedback is ignored, especially when it comes to protected classes, resulting in colossal failures that the creators never seem to anticipate.
These developers appear more interested in imposing their worldview on consumers than in creating games that appeal to a broad audience. When their vision doesn’t resonate, they become frustrated and label dissenters as “racist,” “bigoted,” or “misogynistic,” dismissing any criticism as coming from a small, intolerant fraction of the player base who seemingly holds the power to put these companies out of business by simply doing nothing.
These games are designed to cater to a near non-existent demographic, with developers genuinely believing their ideology reflects the status quo. Any pushback is waved off as coming from a fringe minority, which is why they are always surprised when these projects flop. Despite repeated failures, they fail to grasp that the majority of consumers simply don’t share their vision, leading to a cycle of confusion and denial when their games are met with widespread rejection.
Gamer.NO opted not to highlight the controversial remarks Ragnar Tørnquist made in 2015 on Red Thread’s forums, Tørnquist expressed his views on race and diversity in the gaming industry, lamenting that his studio was predominantly made up of White men, a situation he described as unfortunate.
Perhaps it was simply because there weren’t many “Black Norwegians” available to fill those roles?
Gamer.NO, however, focused on Red Thread Games’ commitment to creating story-driven titles that stand out, with Tørnquist himself describing his studio as small, with only 12 employees. He also mentioned how the overwhelmingly negative reception of Dustborn, along with what he claimed were threats and “conspiracies,” had taken a toll on the team.
In a way, Dustborn did manage to stand out, but not for the reasons they had hoped. The game, centered on progressive queer, non-binary, and gender-fluid characters of color who use the power of words to inflict physical and mental effects, was impossible to overlook due to its overtly progressive design.
Even in a market where female protagonists of color are becoming more common, Dustborn stood out like a sore thumb. Red Thread Games certainly got the attention they desired, though for all the wrong reasons. Unfortunately for them, the wave of criticism, ridicule, and disgust the game attracted didn’t translate into sales, despite the massive exposure it gained online from being mocked for its overtly “woke” design.
Given the current economic climate, consumers simply cannot afford to waste money on shit products. As AAA developers attempt to normalize $70 game prices during a widespread economic depression, the push for wokeness has lost its appeal.
This relentless focus on promoting radical beliefs and inclusive character design has been met with resistance, especially as feminist journalists often act as defenders of these developers, labeling critics as racists, extremists, or conspiracy theorists. As a result, wokeness has become a stale trend, associated with nothing but stigma and backlash.
Many companies are now panicking as they lose social relevance in the eyes of consumers who are quick to dismiss brands and franchises that do not cater to their interests. This, combined with the financial losses they are incurring, has created a sense of urgency among these companies to reevaluate their approaches.
An increasing number of people are becoming more vocal against leftist woke ideology as they witness the types of individuals who promote and uphold it. For instance, various media outlets targeted Hogwarts Legacy with boycotts due to J.K. Rowling’s views on human biology while BBC Gaming presenter Jules Hardy called for a “final purge” of gamers who resist DEI and ESG initiatives.
Additionally, BLM advocates have even celebrated the destruction of small family-owned businesses during riots, blaming White supremacy for police putting down criminals.
Pattern recognition is a natural human instinct, but it takes time for individuals to feel comfortable voicing their concerns. These companies and developers often lie directly to their audiences, claiming ignorance about why their games fail to connect with players, why their names have become vilified within the gaming community, and why their products simply do not appeal to real audiences.
The fact that Dustborn peaked at just over 80 concurrent players on PC is telling. Games saturated with radical notions of diversity and equality are met with disgust by consumers. Despite this clear backlash, these leftist developers remain oblivious to the reasons why the vast majority of people do not resonate with their ideologies and are more than happy to cry victim at the prospect of sinking their company.
