10 Video Games That Were Pulled From Digital Store Shelves (And Why)

Developed by Taiwanese studio Red Candle Games, Devotion was launched in February 2019, and while it started its shelf life in a really strong manner due to some high review scores, it became embroiled in controversy within a matter of days.

Two days, to be precise. Just 48 hours after its release, reports began to emerge that players had discovered a particularly unusual poster within the game - a poster that contained the phrase "Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh moron", which is a reference to the internet meme that compares Winnie the Pooh to the Chinese leader.

The game was quickly review-bombed on Steam, while Red Candle Games issued an apology, calling the inclusion of the meme a mistake - but the damage was already done, and Devotion was pulled from Steam amid the controversy.

But its story didn't end there. In December 2020, it was announced that the game would soon be made available to purchase via GOG, a distribution platform owned by CD Projekt. However, literally hours after this announcement was made, GOG backtracked, tweeting that the negative response from players had prompted them to re-think their decision to put Devotion on their store.

While CD Projekt's name isn't really at the forefront of this situation, the company is definitely having a poor end to a crappy year.