Return to Monkey Island dev is refusing to talk about the game due to toxic "fans"

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This is why we can’t have nice things

Return to Monkey Island
(Image credit: Terrible Toybox/Devolver Digital)

Ron Gilbert, the co-writer of Return to Monkey Island, has said he will no longer be posting insights into the sequel’s development due to several unnecessary negative comments. 

In the comments section of a post on his blog grumpygamer.com, Ron said: "I’m shutting down comments. People are just being mean and I’m having to delete personal attack comments." It appears that a lot of the negativity has stemmed from some people not being a fan of Return to Monkey Island’s new art style. 

"It’s an amazing game and everyone on the team is very proud of it. Play it or don’t play it but don’t ruin it for everyone else." Gilbert’s comment continues, "I won’t be posting any more about the game. The joy of sharing has been driven from me." 

A few months ago, Gilbert actually addressed the potential backlash following the reveal of Return to Monkey Island due to the game abandoning its original retro look. The first Monkey Island game - The Secrets of Monkey Island - was released back in 1990 and it appears some fans were hoping to see more of the same style of game, despite it being over 30 years since it was released. 

The voice actor for Return to Monkey Island’s Guybrush Threepwood, Dominic Armato, also shared their frustration about the comments on Twitter by sharing a screenshot of Gilbert's comment and adding: "Bang-up job, everybody. I've seen a lot of passionate but polite/polite-adjacent discussion going on, but the comments on Ron's blog were a total shitshow."

If you haven’t been keeping up to date, it was revealed earlier this week that Return to Monkey Island is a Switch console launch exclusive - don’t worry though, the swashbuckling adventure game is also due to release on PC too. In preparation for launch, Return to Monkey Island also got a new website recently which is actually a playable adventure game in itself. The new website gives us a little more info about the upcoming game but we're still waiting for confirmation of that all-important release date. 

If you’re curious about what else we can look forward to playing soon, take a look at our upcoming Switch games list. 

Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.