Gears 5 Will Eliminate Depictions of Smoking - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 07 September 2019 / 2,747 Views
Gears of War developer, The Coalition, is looking to eliminate any depictions of smoking in Gears 5, whether it is cigarettes or cigars. This is according to The Coalition studio head Rod Fergusson who spoke with Variety.
This is after not-for-profit anti-smoking organization Truth Initiative approached Turner, whose ELeague esports division has broadcast rights to the game. Turner worked with the developer of the game to remove smoking from it.
"I’ve seen firsthand the devastating impact of smoking," said Fergusson. "It’s always been important for me to not use smoking as a narrative device, which is why we made the conscious choice to avoid highlighting or glorifying smoking in Gears 5 and throughout the Gears of War Universe moving forward."
Previous Gears of War titles have included a handful of scenes with tobacco use. The removal of tobacco use in Hears 5 has been in the works for months, according to Seth Ladetsky, senior VP at Turner Sports Sales and head of Turner Sports Digital and ELeague sales strategy and revenue.
"This took a lot of time and a lot of good thinking," said Ladetsky. "It’s the right image for ELeague — and the game itself — to project."
Gears 5 will launch for Xbox One and PC on September 10.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Since when people got into smoking or any other drug after playing a game?
It's the "video games cause X" argument.
Car theft, high speed chases, and drugs, all started because of GTA... Or wait, did GTA start because of those realities?
Useing a Chain Saw, to saw a person or monster in two is fine.... all the gore and killing.
But a man smokeing a cigar? oh no! that wont do!
Hahahaha. Quality bullshit.
Aren't video games created to role play lives we don't live and do things we wouldn't do?
I'm Batman
The next move would be ban any games with guns, including gears, because of all the anti-gun movements we have today.
Nah. Smoking bad, guns and killing good. It's modern world (aka hypocrisy) after all. You either eliminate both or you do admit that games can influence gamers, because that's exactly what is happening here. Any lawyer could use this move as an argument against gaming. For people who think that's ok ... think twice.
Smoking is bad but chainsawing people in half is OK, huh Microsoft?
I have no problem with this. Characters smoking or not makes zero difference to the integrity of the game--which is why the "but violence is okay lol" argument does not apply--and removing even the slightest subliminal reinforcement to something many children are still drawn into by peer pressure isn't a bad thing. I see nothing to complain about.
This is so ridiculous.
Fuck right off with that progressive politics crap. Everyone knows smoking is bad, it's just a stereotypical thing to be expected of certain characters. Gears 4 was bad enough, 5 needs all the goodwill it can get, and this doesn't compare to better gameplay mechanics or something new and enticing.
We will have about a hundred more things to be upset or outrage about by the time this game comes out nobody is gonna even remember this was a thing.
What's the point of adult ratings in videogames if they are going to neuter them anyway?
I had gay sex once because it looked cool in a video game. True story.
Censoring and taking bad habits out of games is just a dumb decision. Leave games alone. What next, are they going to take smoking out of movies because you know.. movies can inspirational just as much. In the mean time, Gears 5 wont have smoking, while I set enemies on fire,. chop them in half and slaughter a bunch with crazy weapons. How embarrassing these decisions make us look as a race.
They already do it in movies.
Its a sad world we are turning into. Might aswell not have any form of movies or games that are not documentaries.
At least it's not happening in Yakuza where everybody except Haruka smokes. The entire cast not knowing what to do with their hands. Fidgeting and all agitated. Getting angry at EVERYTHING. Anyway, I'm just glad that the people at The Coalition are here to protect me from the bad things in the world. So....with all the different things going on in the area in question and the various fluids and gasses from the weapon, I wonder what it smells like when somebody gets chainsawed in the scrotum?
How stupid does it sound when they take out smoking because it can affect you yet chain sawing mobs of enemies down is passable. Games don't affect people, when will humanity accept that.
I think this is a dangerous path to walk. I mean, if we concede that a game is influential enough to make people smoke then how are we gonna be able to deny that it might also be influential enough when it comes to violence?
Erm...ok. But really I can't really think or any times in past Gears games with smoking in it.
There really isn't any smoking in the Gears series, Barrik is basically the only character who smoked.
The Coalition just announced a new game called "Hears 5", I look forward of seeing more of this.
I would usually be against an organization going to a studio and asking them to remove something from their game, but the studio head said he has seen the impacts of smoking himself, so it makes sense that he would agree to that. I'm not going to be mad at the studio head removing something that he doesn't like from his game.
