Horizon Forbidden West Devs Find Homophobic Backlash ‘Easy To Ignore’

The recent Horizon Forbidden West DLC Burning Shores features a kiss shared by a same-sex pair. As you can sadly expect, it was met with backlash.

Many fans rejoiced at Horizon’s lead, Aloy finally getting a romantic opportunity with the warrior Seyka. If players decide, the girls can share a kiss but as you can expect, some players were not happy. So much so that some took to Metacritic to review-bomb the DLC, blaming the “homosexual content.”

Horizon Forbidden West Devs Find Homophobic Backlash ‘Easy To Ignore’

A month on from its release, the Horizon devs have come forward to say they find it “pretty easy to ignore” the backlash they have received.

Quite simply, the Guerrilla narrative and writing team don’t have any regrets about this storyline. 

“We’re always looking to make something that’s compelling, something that’s emotionally engaging, so for people who have actually played the game, we were always interested in hearing about those experiences and those thoughts and feedback,” says lead writer Annie Kitain during an interview with VGC. 

“But for people who didn’t play the game, or who are just trying to be negative online, we find that pretty easy to ignore.”

Happy by the overall reaction

For narrative lead Ben McCraw, he is “enormously pleased with the reaction” the team have received for the romance. He admits that they are often worried about the small details in these big stories but seeing a positive reaction is always worth it. 

“We love it when they have constructive feedback about this or that,” says McCraw. “And we’re perfectly happy when they say they don’t like this or that, with regard to virtually any aspect of the game that they’ve really thought about.”

Credit: Guerrilla Games

“But yeah, when there’s just this kind of blatant negativity, I personally find it pretty easy to just compartmentalise and realise that this is a mindset I can never really jive with, and that sort of thing,” he continued.

Despite the negative reviews posted to Metacritic, it wasn’t all bad news. The review bombing caused the site to introduce stricter moderation for its users in the hope of combatting this kind of feedback.

Read: Horizon Forbidden West sequel could be in development

What did you think of Aloy’s story in Horizon Forbidden West? Let us know across our social media platforms.