Update:

In a new post on Steam from Richard 'Terminx ' Gobeille – lead developer on Ion Fury – a joint statement was shared from both Voidpoint and 3D Realms, stating they will not be removing any homophobic content from Ion Fury, counteracting what was vocalized previously after the developers made transphobic and sexist remarks in their Discord channel.





"We at 3D Realms spoke with Voidpoint today and they reaffirmed their commitment to honoring their original statement, including the donation to The Trevor Project and sensitivity training. However, the soap bottle will not be removed.



The use of the word “f*gbag” in an area that was inaccessible without hacking the game, and was added by one developer without approval from anyone else, was removed a few days ago. We once again apologize for this text as it does not reflect the values of 3D Realms or Voidpoint.



Jokes at the expense of marginalized communities will not be present in future games published by 3D Realms. However, a portion of our community made it loud and clear they felt removing “Ogay” was censorship and should be protected by free speech. Voidpoint wanted to listen and we respected this decision."

The statement can be read below:"Joint statement from Voidpoint and 3D Realms:We’ve caused a recent controversy suggesting Ion Fury game content was to be censored.We will absolutely NOT be censoring Ion Fury or any of our other games, now or in the future, including but not limited to by removing gags such as gaming’s most controversial facial wash.We do not support censorship of creative works of any kind and regret our initial decision to alter a sprite in the game instead of trusting our instincts. 3D Realms and Voidpoint stand together on this matter.Last but not least, please respect our need to keep our community forums clean from hateful messages, spam, or off-topic threads. We recognize our mistake and have received your message loud and clear!"3D Realms followed-up with its own statement which confirmed that Voidpoint will still be making a donation to The Trevor Project and undergo sensitivity training. "However, the soap bottle will not be removed."Here is 3D Realms full statement below:Original story follows:

"We recognize these statements are insensitive, unacceptable, and counterproductive to causes of equality. We unequivocally apologize both for these comments and language as well as for any pain they have caused the gaming community, particularly women and members of the LGBTQ community. We take full responsibility for any damage that has been done to the relationships we've worked so hard to build.



Moving forward, Voidpoint will institute a zero-tolerance policy for this type of language and all employees and contractors will undergo mandatory sensitivity training. As part of our efforts to contribute to the work that must be done to further support these communities, we are donating $10,000 from Ion Fury's release day proceeds to The Trevor Project. We are also patching Ion Fury ASAP to remove all unacceptable language."

“It has come to our attention Voidpoint, the developers of Ion Fury, have been accused of making transphobic and misogynistic statements, and included homophobic language in the game which was not approved by us.



Under current leadership, 3D Realms has taken pride empowering marginalized groups, as evident by our strong female protagonist Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison and the makeup of our team.



Moving forward all of 3D Realms’ contracts will include terms which would allow us to sever relationships if a contractor does not abide by our zero-tolerance policy for hate speech, and Ion Fury will be patched ASAP to remove all unacceptable language."

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Voidpoint, the developers behind Ion Fury, apologized after it was revealed the team made sexist and transphobic statements in their developer Discord channel. The team also added homophobic language into Ion Fury itself. In a pair of statements from Voidpoint and publisher 3D Realms, the two companies said it will patch out the offensive language from the game, and Voidpoint promised to pledge $10,000 to the LGBT non-profit, The Trevor Project.Over the weekend a Resetera forum thread published screen captures from the Voidpoint Discord channel that showed the Ion Fury developers make disparaging statements towards the LGBT community, specifically at the trans community.In one screencap, Ion Fury lead developer Terminx writes, “Yeah if you’re trying to decide your child is trans at birth you have mental problems and probably shouldn’t be a parent [in my opinion].” In another screencap a different Ion Fury developer, Daedolon, asks, “[B]ut mutilating a perfectly healthy body WHILE you have depression and other big mental issues won’t [cause suicides]?”IGN reached out to Voidpoint and Ion Fury publisher 3D Realms regarding the validity of these Discord chat conversations, and Voidpoint responded this to be the case in a statement. Voidpoint also admitted to adding homophobic language into the game itself.“Members of Voidpoint’s Ion Fury team have made sexist and transphobic comments, and included homophobic language in Ion Fury,” writes Voidpoint.In a full statement, the developers apologized for their comments, and pledged to donate $10,000 from Ion Fury’s release day proceeds to The Trevor Project. Here’s Voidpoint’s full statement below:Ion Fury publisher 3D Realms also issued a statement, saying that in the future 3D Realms will sever relationships with any developer that breaks the company's zero-tolerance policy for hate speech. Ion Fury was released on August 15, 2019 for PC and utilizes the EDuke32 engine. It is a fork of the Build engine which was used to develop classic 90s FPS games like Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and Blood. Ion Fury was previously titled, Ion Maiden before the music band Iron Maiden threatened to sue over IP infringement.

Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.