Love Island mobile game delayed allegations of an anti LGBT workplace
The Love Island mobile game has seemingly been delayed after staff accuses the workplace of Fusebox Games of being anti LGBT and sexist.
As reported by The Independent, staff members at Fusebox Games face the potential of losing their jobs after speaking up about the treatment of LGBT characters and themes within the game Matchmaker: Puzzles and Stories. In this game, players are encouraged to create their own, beautiful character and get them with whoever takes their fancy, all the while having a match-3 element featured as well.
However, one of the storylines was brought up by concerned staff. According to Pink News, this is a storyline where players are a female divorcee who meets a handsome, but ‘maybe too young’ man that snatches your drink away and refuses to give it back to you unless you kiss him. Not exactly the best lesson about consent, is it?
It gets worse. LGBT staff also brought up that the game made bisexuality a topic of fetishization, with the protagonist pretending to like the same-sex in order to appear more attractive to her potential love interests. After bringing up what was wrong with the storyline, staff were told it would be removed from the game. That turned out to be false for international versions of the game.
In response, on May 24th 31 staff members from Fusebox Games wrote an open letter to address the problematic content involved in the game.
One staff member told The Independent that they felt ‘used’ and ‘hurt’. “I feel like I put so much love and effort into something and I’m not getting the bare minimum of respect as a worker [that] I should deserve.”
What made things worse was that three weeks after the letter had been shared, most of the employees that had signed it was told their jobs were at risk due to financial issues. As of July this year, Fusebox Games narrative designers and writers were laid off.
What makes this a real shame is that we know first hand during our first Gayming Live how passionate the LGBT staff at Fusebox Games are, and they’ve really done incredible things with the Love Island IP.
As of writing, Fusebox Games official website states that the Love Island mobile game will be released towards the end of the year. With staff saying that’s not the case however, with the game being in ‘sunset mode’, aka a fancy way to say indefinite delay, we’re not all too sure when fans should expect to get their virtual Love Island fix.
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