Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Dev Denies Saudi Arabia Ban Rumor

ign.com:

Daniel Vávra, co-founder of Warhorse Studios, has denied a recent rumor that Saudi Arabia had banned Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 over an unskippable gay cutscene.

2018’s Kingdom Come Deliverance is a story-driven action role-playing game set in the medieval Kingdom of Bohemia. It pitches itself as an historically accurate representation of the setting, but its lack of people of color became a talking point in the months following release.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, due out February 4, 2025, once again leans on historical accuracy for its return to medieval Bohemia, but players can expect a slightly different experience. Warhorse has said that, because protagonist Henry is embarking on a journey from the countryside to a relatively cosmopolitan city that is besieged and occupied by an invading king, he will encounter a wide range of ethnicities and characters this time around.

The claim that Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 was banned in Saudi Arabia reportedly emerged from a tweet by a Saudi Arabian news outlet, and was picked up by western media and spread across social media and forums.

Now, Vávra has taken to social media to deny the claim and provide clarification on how Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 works. Vávra tweeted to say it does not have unskippable cutscenes and was not and is not banned in any country, “at least not that we know of.”

Vávra then pointed to the fact that the first Kingdom Come Deliverance had gay characters, and said players are responsible for their in-game decisions. “If you want Henry to try a same-sex adventure, feel free,” Vávra insisted. “If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. All affairs are (and were in KCD1) purely optional. The characters are perfectly aware that it was a forbidden sin.”

Following the Saudi Arabia ban rumor, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 became the latest video game to be singled out for being “woke” or including “forced diversity” — a growing online trend that some developers and publishers have felt the need to counter in