Playtonic to ditch JonTron from Yooka-Laylee following anti-immigrant comments

[Jtbrig7390]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...grant-comments

Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic is removing the vocal performance of YouTube personality Jon "JonTron" Jafari, who plays a bit part in the game, after he made a series of inflammatory comments about immigrants and people of colour.

1
Jon 'JonTron' Jafari.
Jafari recently expressed a multitude of bigoted sentiments, first on Twitter, then in an interview with Destiny streamer Steve Bonnell. Over the course of this two-hour talk, Jafari claimed that Mexicans were trying to conquer American land, wealthy black people commit more crimes than poor white people, and that Black Lives Matter was a violent movement.

"No other nation would voluntarily change its demographics" he said in reference to controversy over US immigration policy. "Nobody wants to become a minority in their own country."

Jafari, who is half Iranian, half Hungarian himself, later backtracked on some of these views, saying "I wasn't prepared for a debate of this sort with these sort of sensitive topics at hand."

"I said a bunch of stuff that could be misconstrued in all sorts of ways," he added, without addressing his most outlandish statements.

Playtonic strongly disagreed with Jafari's views and decided to sever ties with the YouTube star.

"In light of his recent personal viewpoints we have made the decision to remove JonTron's inclusion in the game via a forthcoming content update," the studio said in a statement to GamesIndustry.biz.

"We would like to make absolutely clear that we do not endorse or support JonTron's personal viewpoints and that, as an external fan contributor, he does not represent Playtonic in any capacity," the developer added.

"Playtonic is a studio that celebrates diversity in all forms and strives to make games that everyone can enjoy. As such, we deeply regret any implied association that could make players feel anything but 100 per cent comfortable in our game worlds, or distract from the incredible goodwill and love shown by our fans and Kickstarter backers."

Yooka-Laylee will launch 11th April on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, Mac and Linux.

Totally understand why they would remove his VO from the game.

[ohiostate124]

Seeing these guys trying to cover their asses is more interesting after seeing all the corporate stuff in Iron Fist.

[minteK917]

Kinda dumb to remove a work already made... Lets remove all Mel Gibson films?

[Triggered Fridgekin]

I'll still watch his videos.

All three he releases each year.

[moveth]

I don't disagree with them, honestly. I'm glad I can separate Jon's online persona and his true life persona. I don't give even 1 shit about his political views. Keep feeding me beautiful comedy.

[I Push Buttons]

Those gosh dang half Iranian half Hungarian white supremacists...

[moveth]

Those gosh dang half Iranian half Hungarian white supremacists...

Removed video for less clutter

cant listen right now, tl;dr?

[GennGreymane]

They dont have to deal with this stupid internet drama if they dont want to. Better to just cut it out now than deal with it later when the games actually out and us keyboard warriors are discussing the game for the wrong reasons.

[I Push Buttons]

cant listen right now, tl;dr?

He called his opponents hypocrites and said people need to stop getting triggered by statistics.

[derpkitteh]

Those gosh dang half Iranian half Hungarian white supremacists...

[video=youtube;aIFf7qwlnSc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIFf7qwlnSc[video]

i mean, stating he's half iranian doesn't really refute the idea he could be a white supremacist(note, i don't think he is really), iranians are white.

[ohiostate124]

Kinda dumb to remove a work already made... Lets remove all Mel Gibson films?

Whoa pump your breaks. Braveheart is the great movie of all time!

[I Push Buttons]

i mean, stating he's half iranian doesn't really refute the idea he could be a white supremacist(note, i don't think he is really), iranians are white.

He didn't make that argument, the article just emphasized his heritage. All he said in that regard is that he isn't anti-immigrant because both of his parents were immigrants; that he was anti-mass immigration.

And the whole white supremacist spiel was the media and such. He stated some things like black people commit a disproportionate amount of crimes given their share of the population... So obviously they took that and ran with him being a racist white supremacist.

[Afrospinach]

Kinda dumb to remove a work already made... Lets remove all Mel Gibson films?

Mad max is now...GHOST CAR!

[moveth]

Kinda dumb to remove a work already made... Lets remove all Mel Gibson films?

If you aren't familiar with Playtonic's work, "voice acting" doesn't really apply. Replacing the vocals will take almost no time because it is just gibberish noise.

[GennGreymane]

Still buying the game. Zero fucks given over Jon and what he feels like doing.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

It's funny because they brought upon themselves a lot of bad PR, but on the same time they've dodged another PR bullet.

Seems like it was a lose/lose situation. Pick your poison, I guess.

Personally, it won't change the fact that I still didn't plan on buying this game, even though I admire the devs for taking the risk of making it.

[GennGreymane]

It's funny because they brought upon themselves a lot of bad PR, but on the same time they've dodged another PR bullet.

Seems like it was a lose/lose situation. Pick your poison, I guess.

Personally, it won't change the fact that I still didn't plan on buying this game, even though I admire the devs for taking the risk of making it.

I wouldnt say a lot. Not that many people honestly give a shit about Jon and that drama with him. Also they get to avoid us talkin about it when the game actually comes out.

[Arrashi]

Holy shit, the lenghts people will go to signal some virtues.

[Edge-]

Holy shit, the lenghts people will go to signal some virtues.

Or, avoid being caught up in some bullshit drama that doesn't benefit them in the slightest. There's no benefit to associating with JonTron right now, given the rep he has publicly and even amongst his own fans.

Nothing to do with virtue signaling in this case.

[NoiseTank13]

this is what happens when you needlessly associate your brand with politics