Atomic Heart dev apologizes for "hurt or insult" caused by racist caricatures

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"We will edit the parts in question"

Atomic Heart
(Image credit: Mundfish)

Developer Mundfish has been forced to apologize for the "hurt or insult" caused by racist caricatures in its newly released shooter, Atomic Heart.

As first spotted by our friends over at PC Gamer, the already controversial shooter – which the Ukrainian government has called "toxic" due to its Russian ties – contains reruns of the old Soviet cartoon Nu, Pogodi! which include the offensive portrayal of Black people.

Whilst not developed or designed directly by Mundfish, the vintage 60s cartoon can be seen in Atomic Heart's save rooms.

"The Mundfish team thanks the PC Gamer contributor for bringing this lack of sensitivity to our attention," the team said via a statement made on Twitch. 

"We apologize if using the vintage cartoon or music has caused hurt or insult. We will edit the parts in question."

The Ukrainian government is petitioning Valve, Microsoft, and Sony to ban sales of Atomic Heart on their corresponding storefronts. Earlier this week, Ukrainian deputy minister of digital transformation Alex Bornyakov issued a statement that said it sought to get digital sales of the Russian-developed Atomic Heart halted on several platforms, but only in Ukraine.

"Regarding the situation with the release of the game Atomic Heart, which has Russian roots and romanticises communist ideology and the Soviet Union, The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine will send an official letter to Sony, Microsoft, and Valve requesting a ban on selling digital versions of this game in Ukraine," Bornyakov said.

"We also urge limiting the distribution of this game in other countries due to its toxicity, potential data collection of users, and the potential use of money raised from game purchases to conduct a war against Ukraine," Bornyakov's statement continued, with the "potential data collection of users" referring to a previous statement on developer Mundfish's website that said it was collecting data from Atomic Heart users on behalf of the Russian government.

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Vikki Blake
Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.