An embarassed THQ Nordic has been forced to cancel plans for a promotional event where attendees would “burn books and hold public lynchings”, admitting that it “should have done more to understand the controversy” around these activities.

“We just brainstormed the idea up in one of our marketing sessions and thought, you know what, we’ll just go with it,” said a THQ Nordic spokesman.

“Get a bunch of books, set them on fire, throw some ropes over some sturdy tree boughs and do a few public lynchings, maybe get some energy drinks and some good tunes in the mix,” they continued.

“Clearly, with the benefit of hindsight, this was very tone-deaf. We should have done more research into these things before leaping into what is clearly a very sensitive topic for some people.”

The move has upset members of the reactionary gaming community, who have accused THQ Nordic of “pandering to SJWs” by refusing to hold a book burning and public lynching event.

“Talk about cucking yourself,” explained YouTuber Jeffery ‘The Duke of Debunking’ Riley to his 645,000 subscribers. “Who even cares about books anymore anyway? I don’t see what the big deal is.”

At the time of printing, GamerGate’s four remaining supporters were planning on burning their own books and then lynching each other to ‘own the feminists.’