Blizzard Apologises For ‘Cultural Insensitivity’ In New Australian Overwatch Map

But not the cultural insensitivity you might think…

Yesterday Blizzard announced ‘Junkertown’, a brand new Overwatch map set in Australia. The people rejoiced, but some raised an interesting point. In its voiceover for the trailer announcement it uses the words “they thought they could take our land”, which some on social media called out as being a little insensitive considering Australia’s history with indigenous communities. There’s been a fair amount of discussion around it.

In context its a little less harmful (“they thought they could take our land and give it to the machines“) but with an increasing amount of noise surrounding the issue we wondered if Blizzard would address it?


Turns out Jeff Kaplan was more concerned with another cultural error.

Blizzard messed up the signs.

Blizzard added a sign to Junkertown that says “Take-out”, an American term, instead of “Take-away”.

Disgusting.

Kaplan apologised for the error, as well he should.

“I’d like to offer a direct apology to the entire country of Australia,” he said in this Reddit post. “Please forgive our cultural insensitivity. We will fix this in an upcoming patch (the sign travesty will most likely go live for some period before being fixed).

“I’ve also been told by Muselk that our coffees are too large as well. We’re learning… trying, over here…”

I can’t believe that Blizzard is actually going to patch this sign.


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