Microfun, Nanobit and Magic Tavern mobile games developers have been accused of reinforcing harmful stereotypes and gender violence in a new report on mobile games advertising.
In a Sky News report, Project Makeover (Magic Tavern), Gossip Harbor (Microfun) and Hollywood Story (Nanobit) were indicated to perpetuate misogynist “incredibly harmful” misogynists to sell their Match-3 puzzle games in the United Kingdom.
The announcement for the image change of the project portrayed a man who threw the ashes of a woman who died in the head to force her to the room for an image change.
Gossip Harbor shows a man physically assault his partner and daughter, which caused the emerging choice to “leave or support”, while Hollywood’s story represents a conventionally unattractive woman who drills a condom to catch a man in a relationship with her.
Using similar data and Appmagic, Sky estimates that the three combined games generated 67.7 million downloads last year, which generated global revenues of $ 367 million through purchases in the application.
Sky reports that this is “only some of the many examples that Sky News has seen of mobile games companies that use domestic abuse, violence and humiliation of women to obtain downloads, when games in themselves, simple puzzle applications, have little relationship with the narratives presented in the ads.”
“It’s incredibly harmful if you are seeing these things even unconsciously, if you are actively seeing them, you are involving them when you are downloading these games,” said Eliza Hatch, who runs to Cheer Up Luv, an anti-public harassment campaign. “What is that encouraging?”
“[Our] The purpose is to entertain in a safe and responsible manner. In this case, we clearly lost the brand, and we sincerely apologize for any anguish that our ads may have caused, “Microfun said in a statement.” We have eliminated the ads in question. They are no longer working, and we have done everything possible to ensure that they are not available to see.
“We have been reviewing our policies and procedures, and we continue to do so to ensure that our content is appropriate.”
The Hollywood Story developer, Naobit, said: “We understand their concerns, but we reiterate that our advertising materials are destined to be cheerful and fictitious scenarios that do not promote harmful stereotypes or gender violence.
“While we regret any crime caused inadvertently, we remain sure that our ads meet the relevant regulations.”
Magic Tavern declined to comment.
The advertising standards authority is aware of advertising campaigns.
In September 2022, the Advertising Standards Authority took action against several mobile games ads, considering that they probably cause “serious or generalized offensive.”
Three mobile games were marked to the ASA for presenting harmful gender stereotypes in promotional material. It was reported that a Twitter announcement for Refantasia: Charm and Conquer, of the Chinese study Oasis, was reported as “sexist”, and was described as showing a “young woman anime style in a cage.”
