🍪 Boycotts: From Ghost of Yōtēi to Lara Croft’s Voice

🦊 Ghost of Yōtēi Boycott: When Industry Figures Mocked Charlie Kirk’s Death

The setup: Ghost of Yōtēi — Sucker Punch’s first post-Tsushima adventure — launches October 2nd. But instead of celebrating its new ronin heroine Atsu, the studio now faces a PR nightmare.

The spark: On September 10th, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley. Hours later, Drew Harrison, a senior artist at Sucker Punch Productions, posted on Bluesky Social: 📢 “I hope the shooter’s name is Mario so that Luigi knows his bro got his back.”

The fallout:

Screenshots went viral, spawning the hashtag #BoycottGhostOfYōtēi.
Fans reported cancelling pre-orders en masse.
Bungie and The Coalition Studio devs were caught liking the post, sparking broader outrage.
Harrison doubled down, joking about Mario Bros and telling critics to push for gun control instead of contacting Sony.
Sucker Punch and Sony? Silent.

Beyond one dev: Kotaku founder Brian Crecente mocked Kirk’s assassination too, calling it “a false flag operation”. And DC Comics fired Gretchen Felker-Martin after she posted “Hope the bullet’s okay after touching Charlie Kirk.”

🎙️ Kiki’s Opinion: “Imagine torching your studio’s biggest launch in years just to farm clout on Bluesky. Congrats, Drew — you speedran yourself into the Hall of Shame. And Sony hiding under the kotatsu? Pathetic. Players don’t forgive contempt — they uninstall it.”

🎙️ French Lara Croft vs AI Voices

Françoise Cadol, Lara’s French voice actress since 1996, is suing Aspyr Media Group . Why? Because Tomb Raider IV–VI Remastered allegedly used AI-generated lines in her voice without consent.

Fans noticed robotic voice shifts mid-remaster.
Cadol called it “a betrayal” of decades of support.
Brazilian actress Lene Bastos had a similar case; Aspyr apologized and promised to patch.

🎙️ Kiki’s Opinion: “AI Lara sounds like Siri after a hangover. If Aspyr thinks fans won’t notice when their beloved heroine suddenly turns into a text-to-speech bot mid-cutscene, they’re dumber than Natla’s goons. Cadol’s right — it’s a betrayal.”

🏜️ Ubisoft’s Saudi DLC Controversy

Ubisoft is releasing a free Assassin’s Creed Mirage DLC set in AlUla, Saudi Arabia. Announced during a Riyadh conference, the deal sparked internal staff pushback:

Workers asked about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder and ties to the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
Management defended the partnership as “diplomatic” and claimed full creative control.

🎙️ Kiki’s Opinion: “Ubisoft loves side quests: loot boxes, NFTs, now whitewashing authoritarian regimes. When your own devs are asking if this makes you look like a PR assassin, maybe don’t answer with ‘it’s diplomacy, bro.’ Mirage indeed.”

👽 Dead Space Creator Wants Alien

Glen Schofield (yes, Dead Space’s dad) told PC Gamer he’d love to make an Alien game — but only with full creative control. He’s even been prototyping new Xenomorphs in Midjourney. Investors? Not biting.

🎙️ Kiki’s Opinion: “Let him cook! The guy birthed Dead Space — if Disney gives him the keys, we might finally get an Alien game scarier than Disney’s quarterly earnings calls. Just don’t let a boardroom suit tell him what a Xeno should look like.”

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