Back in February 2019, Taiwanese developer Red Candle released a fantastic horror game called Devotion. It spent a short time on Steam before it was pulled due to an Easter egg was discovered that referenced China's president, Xi Jinping, and Winnie the Pooh. See, Xi Jinping looks like Winnie the Pooh and he hates that fact. His obedient flock took offense on his behalf (in addition to being mad that the game was made by a Taiwanese developer). These Chinese users mass review bombed the game on Steam, which eventually led to Red Candle pulling the game while they did a "QA check."
In July 2019, Red Candle said that they might not relist the game back on Steam. Nothing much was heard about the game again until December 2020 when GOG.com announced that they were going to be selling the updated release of Devotion... Except just hours after this announcement they went back and said that they would not sell Devotion after all. Their excuse was that they had received "many messages from gamers" that changed their mind. This was found to be a load of rubbish as the game was pulled to avoid upsetting the Chinese gamers and to ensure that Cyberpunk 2077 could be released in China without issue later on.
In the here and now, Red Candle Games decided to take matters into their own hands. They have released Devotion on their own marketplace. You can pick up Devotion right now for $17 (USD) for both Windows and Mac. You can even add in the soundtrack for a total that is a bit more than $20. The studio's previous game, Detention, is also available from the Red Candle store. Red Candle also notes that future games will be released on their own storefront in DRM-free formats.
If you like atmospheric horror titles, I strongly suggest you check out Devotion. It's well worth it.
