Devolver Digital and Gamepires have made the decision to remove certain tattoos with Nazi imagry for character creation their recently launched game Scum.
The game, which has been selling very well since launch, premise was a reality show that forced prisoners to fight for survival. While the game is in early access, a $9.99 Scum Supporter Pack gave players extra character customization options.
One of these drew the ire of some players, a tattoo that has a skull covering the entire face also had tattoos on the back of the head. Some of these tattoos featuring an iron cross with a skull, and the numbers 14 and 88.
Those numbers (sometimes written together as 1488) are prominent in Neo-Nazi groups, especially with real life prisons, where gangs often get tattoos to show who they are aligned with.
The tattoo was modified to remove those tattoos from the design. In addition, a tattoo of a scorpion has been removed from the side of the head and A.C.A.B has been removed from the base of the neck. A.C.A.B. is an anti-police phrase meaning “All Cops Are Bastards”.
Polygon published the image of the tattoos after the update (the comparison which can be seen above). They also note the update to the tattoo was not included on any recent patch notes to the game’s most recent updates, nor their social media. Devolver Digital published a statement to Polygon, stating:
At a later date the developers Gamepires also offered their statement to Polygon:
In related news, Germany has recently removed its ban on showing Nazi imagery from video games sold in the country. This was due to the USK deeming video games protected the same way art and items for historical research are.
Scum is currently in Early Access on Steam, for Windows PC. A full release date has not been announced at this time.