With the latest update published for his fighting game, it seems that Arc System Works has removed from Guilty Gear Strive the references to Taiwan, Tibet, Korea, Singapore, Mongolia, Siberia and the ethnic Uyghurs.
As fans of the series will already know, Guilty Gear presents a rather rich and multifaceted narrative universe, and lays its foundations on an alternative worldview to the real one, in which occult magic and technologies also find space. The fighting game has a glossary in which all the details concerning the countries of the world are meticulously reported, and it is precisely through this feature that some players have noticed an anomaly after the last update of the 2.5D fighting game.
References to the aforementioned nations, regions and ethnicities have suddenly disappeared from the game’s databases, without any kind of notice from the development studio. However, it was easy for users to connect the dots and come to the conclusion that the censorship and removal operation was carried out in order not to arouse any negative reactions from the Chinese government, which is not in idyllic relations with some of the peoples taken. under consideration (see the case of the Uighurs). It is therefore possible that, to safeguard the game in Chinese territory, Arc System has decided to change some aspects of the narrative context of Guilty Gear Strive.
The removals took place at first in the Steam version, but were then also found in the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 editions. There are several players who say they are disappointed by the behavior of the Japanese software house, which for the moment has refused to provide a comment about it. Although the reasons appear evident, it will be good to wait for the developers to clarify the situation.