SCUM: 14/88 tattoo controversy

SCUM is an upcoming multiplayer online open world survival game, developed by Croatian studio Gamepires, produced by Croteam and published by Devolver Digital. It entered Steam's early access program on August 29, 2018. The game allows the player to play as "the worst of the worst criminals", who had to fight against each other in a reality TV show.

However, The inclusion of Nazi tattoos found by a member of the SCUM subreddit, who posted an image of a tattoo in the SCUM Supporter Pack that includes an iron cross with a skull in the center, and the numbers 14 and 88, which are notorious white supremacy symbols, sparked a considerable amount of controversy.

An initial reaction from one member of the SCUM team by Croteam community manager Zenoslaf originally defended the tattoos as part of the game's universe. "If you are offended by some textures in the game, please don't play the game. Because if we start removing things that hurt someone's feelings, it will be an empty game," wrote Zenoslaf in a locked Steam thread.

Zenoslaf's response made the situation much worse, which has resulted in an apology from developer Gamepires and publisher Devolver Digital, and removal of the tattoo from the game. According to Devolver Digital's apologizing statement, the inclusion of the tattoo was "To create an atmosphere of the worst of the worst criminals in SCUM, and to portray the horrible type of people who would find themselves in a 'fight to the death' situation for a futuristic reality show where the worst criminals are pitted against one another."

Gamepires also addressed the forum response from Zenoslaf writing, "Wince our initial response on our forums we've discussed this as a team and with our publisher and agree wholeheartedly that this content was unnecessary, should not have been included, and have removed it. We apologize for this misstep and promise to our fans that we will take more caution in our approach moving forward."