Game developer apologises for racist cartoon

The developer behind the controversial and popular Atomic Heart has apologised for including a racist cartoon after gamers discovered it in the game.

Mundfish, the controversial Russian developer behind the popular recent release Atomic Heart, has apologised for the inclusion of a cartoon depicting a racist caricature in the game.

The cartoon was first discovered by a Twitter user, before being shared to video game forum Resetera. The clip shared shows an old Soviet cartoon, in which a racist depiction of a person of colour is present.

The cartoon in question is Nu, Pogodi!, often called Well, Just You Wait! in English and referred to as The Hare and The Wolf in other regions, and is a real cartoon that aired in the Soviet Union from the late 60s to the early 90s. The series is described as similar to Tom and Jerry, and has a hare defending itself against a hungry wolf in a series of slapstick situations.

The series in its whole plays out in one of Atomic Heart’s save rooms, and the racist caricature is on-screen for about a second. Nonetheless, some players did see it in the game, and many expressed their discontent with it.

“There’s no excuse not editing that out,” one Resetera user said, “Regardless of if it’s old. Idiots”.

Nu, Pogodi! ran for thirty years in the USSR and Russia. Picture: YouTube

“The more I hear about this game, the worse it gets,” said another.

Some users pointed out in the thread that the cartoon won a Russian poll in 2014, naming it the favourite cartoon or animated series of all time. Others pointed to it as roughly indicative of the time period in the game, which is set in the 1950s USSR.

Mundfish has reportedly responded to the criticism, apologising for its inclusion and promising to remove the offending sections.

“The Mundfish team thanks the PC Gamer contributor for bringing this lack of sensitivity to our attention,” Mundfish reportedly said, “We apologise if using the vintage cartoon or music has caused hurt or insult. We will edit the parts in question” (thanks Eurogamer).

Ukraine leadership recently said it wants the popular Russian game banned, writing to digital storefronts like Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation asking to have the game removed. The country’s deputy minister of digital transformation said the game’s toxicity as well as concerns over player data were the reason for the calls for a ban.

Atomic Heart has been criticised by players for its lacklustre storytelling. Picture: Mundfish

It comes after the Aussie composer for the game donated his fee, pledging all of his earnings for working on the game to Red Cross Australia’s Ukraine Crisis Appeal.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.