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The boss behind the studio that developed one of 2025’s best RPGs, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, says that online controversies about the game and its predecessor involving representation likely didn’t hurt the game’s sales and only mattered to “a handful” of people who are online 24/7.
Some quick history. In 2017, in the lead-up to the launch of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, developer Warhorse Studios was criticized by some online for not including people of color in the game. The studio defended this by claiming it was historically accurate that in early 15th-century Bohemia, especially in the countryside where the game was set, it was rare to see non-white people. Some scholars agreed, others weren’t sure, and people online yelled about it, with some right-leaning gamers very invested in protecting the studio from the “woke agenda.” Fast forward to 2025, when a lot of the people who had previously defended Warhorse’s dedication to historical accuracy were now mad that the studio was including more people of color. The studio explained that it made sense as the sequel involved a large city that would have brought in more people from around the world. There were also some folks angry about the ability to have a gay relationship.
So, did any of this controversy affect the game sales? That’s what PC Gamer recently asked Martin Klíma, Warhorse’s co-founder and the executive producer on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
“I would really, really like to know the answer to this one. You can really convincingly argue both ways,” Klíma told the outlet. “You can convincingly argue that we got some extra visibility—that it doesn’t matter what they say about you, as long as they spell your name right.” At the same time, he said, you could argue that “any controversy is hurtful, and you want to speak about the game, and you don’t want to explain some…tangled reasoning.”
Klíma further explained that he personally felt that the online controversies surrounding both games “only mattered to, really, a handful of terminally online culture warriors” and believed that they are “an insignificant intersection with the gaming public writ large.”
“The real players really don’t care about it at all, and probably most of them never really even heard about these pseudo-controversies,” said Klíma.
Considering the fact that Kingdom Come: Deliverance has sold over 10 million copies since 2017, and that its sequel has already sold over four million, I think Klíma might be right. It’s a good reminder that most people aren’t online as much as your favorite journalists, content creators, or posters. That’s not to say they don’t care about things like representation, but they aren’t really hearing about most of this stuff, and instead are just buying that game that people said was good or that has a cool cover. Honestly, I’m jealous.
English (US) ·