PUBG’s developers have issued an apology to gamers after fans became offended by a new in-game item.
Over the weekend, the game’s store added a new pilot’s mask, which featured a symbol that’s commonly associated with the Imperial Japanese military.
The item was clocked by Bzit, a Korean news site, who reported on the controversy which has now led to the item being pulled from sale.
The mask’s design appeared to show a rising sun, which was construed by some gamers as being a reference to Japan’s imperial system during World War Two.
PUBG comes from publisher Bluehole, a South Korean company.
In a statement about the issue, the company said: “We apologise for causing concerns over a pilot mask item.
“We will conduct an overall re-examination of our image production process to prevent such a recurrence.
“We will enhance procedures to scrutinise game items before their release and hold the person in charge responsible.”
On the same day that news of the mask broke, one player also noticed another potential link to the Japanese army.
One of the game’s artificial intelligence bots had the name “Unit 731,” which added to the controversy as Unit 731 was a division of the Japanese army that created chemical weapons and was responsible for human experimentation on Russian, Korean and Chinese prisoners of war.
It’s believed that around 10,000 people died in the testing facilities of Unit 731.
PUBG is now removing the bot’s name to prevent any further upset to its players.
The company isn’t the first to be issuing an apology to players this week, as Battle Royal game The Culling 2 was pulled from sale after a disastrous launch that left the game unplayable.
The team behind the game, Xaviant, recently issued an apology to fans after they admitted they’d created a game that players hasn’t asked for.