Spiritfarer developer Thunder Lotus has issued an apology to gamers after criticism was levelled at the game for containing ableist writing, and has also pledged to fix the storyline.
Spiritfarer Developer Apologies For Ableist Writing
In case you haven’t been keeping up, players were particularly irked by a storyline that implied a character using a wheelchair could only be freed in death, perpetuating the idea that “being dead is better than disabled.”
In response, Thunder Lotus has said that it plans to ‘correct the lack of sensitivity and good judgement we demonstrated.’
It has been brought to our attention that some of the writing in Spiritfarer is ableist, especially in the case of one character’s description of their own wheelchair. We, the developers of Spiritfarer, would like to offer a sincere and heartfelt apology, and pledge to correct the lack of sensitivity and good judgement we demonstrated.
Spiritfarer was released for PS4, PC, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia and Xbox One on August 18, and you can read our review here.
[Source – Thunder Lotus on Twitter]