Ion Fury Controversy

(Formerly Ion Maiden)

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, “But mutilating a perfectly healthy body WHILE you have depression and other big mental issues won’t [cause suicides]?”

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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:
"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."


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.