Gears 5 will be the next game in the “Gears of War” saga. The third-person shooter will be released on September 10 for PC and Xbox One. It will receive an “M” rating and offer plenty of violence and blood. However, smoking will completely disappear from the game after an anti-smoking organization complained.
Why is smoking being removed? An anti-smoking organization, the “Truth Initiative,” approached the esports league that holds the broadcasting rights to Gears 5. The organization wanted to ensure that all references to smoking and tobacco would disappear from the game. They got their way.
As Variety reports, there were previously occasional scenes with tobacco in the “Gears of War” titles, with certain characters smoking cigarettes or cigars. That’s now over.
A representative of the esports league states that the decision to remove all tobacco references from Gears 5 has been in the works for months: “It required a lot of time and careful thought. It’s the right image for the ELeague and for the game.”
Studio Head says he has always been against smoking
This is what the studio says: The head of “The Coalition,” Rod Fergusson, says he has experienced firsthand the destructive influences of smoking.
For him, it has always been important not to use smoking as a narrative device, which is why the conscious decision was made to avoid glorifying smoking and giving it a platform. This applies to Gears 5 and everything else in the “Gears of War” universe.
Fergusson later emphasized on Twitter that he has always advocated keeping smoking out of Gears of War:
- Friends of his died of lung cancer.
- His father was a smoker and died at 38.
According to Xbox Games Studios, the decision was made solely by The Coalition.
Will they also remove violence? No, there are no signs of that. The esports league representative says that the removal of smoking does not change the actual game.
This implies that lowering the level of violence would indeed change the actual game.
First Netflix, now making video games smoke-free
This is what the anti-smoking organization says: They hope that this example will set a precedent and that other video game studios will also renounce the depiction of smoking.
Its declared goal is to protect the youth of America from smoking. Therefore, they want to ban smoking from pop culture.
The Truth Initiative had already advocated for the network popular among teenagers, Netflix, to remove smoking from its series such as “Stranger Things” or “Orange is the New Black.”
They released a study showing that smoking among the age group of 15-24 increased in 2018.
A popular example where smoking has already disappeared: Starcraft II, the Space Marine Tychus.
