Playtonic, the UK publisher of the upcoming game Yooka-Laylee, has removed YouTuber JonTron’s speaking role from the game.
JonTron, real name John Jafari, was embroiled in controversy last week after he made some controversial statements in an online debate about immigration and black crime.
Playtonics originally invited JonTron to be part of the game in 2015 after they found out he was a huge fan of Banjo Kazooie, the spiritual precursor to Yooka-Laylee. JonTron recorded the voice of one of the game’s minor characters.
But after hearing JonTron’s recent political statements, they decided to remove his voice from the game entirely.
In a statement to GameIndustry.biz, Playtonics said:
We recently became aware of comments made by voice artist JonTron after development on Yooka-Laylee had been completed. JonTron is a talented video presenter who we were initially, two years ago, happy to include as a voice contributor in our game. However, in light of his recent personal viewpoints we have made the decision to remove JonTron’s inclusion in the game via a forthcoming content update. We would like to make absolutely clear that we do not endorse or support JonTron’s personal viewpoints and that, as an external fan contributor, he does not represent Playtonic in any capacity. Playtonic is a studio that celebrates diversity in all forms and strives to make games that everyone can enjoy. As such, we deeply regret any implied association that could make players feel anything but 100% comfortable in our game worlds, or distract from the incredible goodwill and love shown by our fans and Kickstarter backers.
