‘Ready Or Not’ Was Not Pulled Due To Nightclub Shooting Map, Says Developers

Ready or Not is no stranger to controversy. Created by Void Interactive, this first-person tactical shooter was initially well-received but just days after release, publisher Team17 split from the venture for reasons officially unknown.

Team17 and Void Interactive announced that the split was “the right path for the future” of the game. Days earlier, Void Interactive had teased that a school shooting level would be added at some point, which is an appalling idea and you can quite easily assume why Team17 would want to sever ties. This week, Ready or Not appeared to find itself in hot water again after releasing a new level featuring a nightclub shooting.

Take a look at the original gameplay trailer for Ready or Not. This does not feature either of the aforementioned levels.

Ready or Not’s nightclub level was added to the game on 12 June, and the title was delisted from Steam just four days later. No explanation was originally provided for the delisting but many pointed out that the addition of the nightclub level landed on the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting which tragically saw 49 people killed in Florida in 2016.

You can quite easily see how this is in utterly poor taste, with many assuming the nightclub level is why Steam decided to take the game down. Shortly after the news broke, Void Interactive claimed that they would simply “have an update soon” and that update is now here.

According to the studio, the game was taken down for a possible copyright infringement and not for the content of the nightclub level. They wrote, “A takedown request was issued via Steam concerning a suggested trademark infringement in our recent Night Club map that was shared as part of our most recent Steam update. We take IP concerns very seriously, and in a show of good faith, we have decided to remove the subject materials and any reference to them from Ready or Not and from any of our social media or other publications.”

They added, “Ready or Not will return to the Steam store once we complete the changes. We have also removed the AI update video from our Youtube channel and from our Steam Store page, and anticipate that these will be restored after an editing process is completed.” The developers are yet to acknowledge the backlash to the nightclub level.