Warner Bros. Games has apologised for an insensitive event intended to celebrate Pride Month in Injustice 2 Mobile.
The Pride event invited players to take part in a challenge to fight and defeat Poison Ivy in return for tokens to unlock different versions of Harley Quinn and Ivy.
Poison Ivy is a canonically bisexual character since her first appearance in 1966. She and and Harley Quinn confessed their love for each other in the recent Harley Quinn animated series.
As reported in Kotaku, ResetEra users commented, “That’s fucking hilariously tone deaf” and “Ah, the beloved pride celebration of repeatedly punching a barely clothed bi woman in the face.”
— Injustice 2 Mobile (@Injustice2Go) June 4, 2021
Injustice 2 Mobile has regularly run promotional challenge events where players can earn in-game rewards.
The more players collectively defeated Ivy, the bigger the prize bundles they could earn with this Pride Month challenge, capped at 500,000 wins.
Posting a statement on Twitter, the publisher said, “We recognize associating our latest Global Challenge with Pride was insensitive and inappropriate.”
“Real life violence against the LGBTQIA+ community and women within that community in particular is all too common and we should actively engage in efforts to end LGBTQIA+ violence, not normalize it.”
