Rumour: Did EB Games’ CEO Personally Order Gal*Gun be Pulled off Australian Shelves?

UPDATE:

It was brought to my attention that this article contains material that is considered illegal in the state I wrote this in. Henceforth, this article will no longer have a link to the YouTube video I published (which I also deleted), and despite the fact none of the people mentioned in the article responded to my questions, I have preemptively deleted the images of my questions to the employees mentioned in the article.

Thank you for your understanding.

Original Story:

Gal*Gun: Double Peace is a charming, if not a tad repetitive, visual novel/rail-shooter PS4 (and now PC) game, with plenty of cute female characters and a copious amount of fanservice that is deeply appreciated by many male (and even female) gamers in the niche gaming community. Like many games before it, however, the existence of the title had caused controversy, mainly in my home country, Australia. It was declared within twenty-four hours after its release that all copies of Gal*Gun: Double Peace and the already-released Senran Kagura Estival Versus were to be pulled off the shelves in the juggernaut physical retailer, EB Games. The initial explanation was due to “low pre-order sales”, yet there was no evidence provided by EB Games to explain this. When I asked the official EB Games Twitter account for an explanation, they said the decision was made based on “key business factors” twice, yet they did not once explain what those factors were.

A few days after the initial controversy, an article by TechRaptor was eventually updated with a statement from Gal*Gun’s publisher, PQube Games: they explained that an employee at the company told them someone was offended by the game, after they saw gaming tabloid Kotaku use the term “orgasm bomb” to describe the area effect attack after you complete Doki-Doki Mode. It was subsequently decided that all copies of Gal*Gun and Senran Kagura were to be censored by being pulled off shelves, preventing new customers not only from knowing the games ever existed, but also from being able to enjoy the game with a physical, Australian-rated disc (it is still digitally available). This was all because one person was offended by the game. On the surface, this appears to be another case of Overwatch’s controversy regarding Tracer’s pose, yet the fact that it was an internal decision made by EB Games to appease the feelings of a single employee speaks of a far more worrying phenomenon within EB Games’ corporate culture.

Angered by this decision on the day it was announced, I went down to one of the EB Games stores I frequent in order to probe some of the employees for answers, in order to get to the bottom of the issue. It turns out the store I went to had only two copies of the game out the back of the store, so I immediately secured a copy before I missed the opportunity to own it. During my purchase, I asked the employees if they received any information as to why the games were being pulled off the shelves. To my surprise, the store manager and the man who was serving me were not told anything about the game’s removal: there was no statement, not even in the form of an email, explaining to them why the game was being pulled. The store manager said she believes it may have been due to the games’ sexualized nature.

She might not be wrong about that, either. But my problem with this explanation was the fact that Gal*Gun and Senran Kagura were both planned to be (and were) sold in the first place, especially the latter title, as it was on shelves for several weeks. Not only that, but the shelf behind the counter had both PS4 and Vita copies of Senran Kagura sitting there. EB Games apparently doesn’t sell Vitas anymore, according to some personal accounts I have heard from — so why is there still a (small) pile of Vita games being sold to customers? I’ve seen no-one actually buy a Vita game, and I’ve frequented EB Games long before the Vita was released. Yet that still sells better than two new titles on the PS4?

From the beginning, I suspected foul play within the company. After the controversy died down, I talked to another EB Games employee at a different store about the game. He told me that there was a rumour going around that it was actually the CEO (Managing Director in Australia) of EB Games himself that was offended by the game and the article. I kept the rumour in mind until I finally decided to do what little investigative work I could into the possibility.

I searched for the name of the Managing Director in order to get to the bottom of the issue. According to his LinkedIn profile, the man currently in charge of EB Games Australia is Steve Wilson. Unfortunately, there are no links on his profile connecting his name to any social media accounts, whether they were public or not, and I cannot archive his, or anyone else’s profiles without the link turning into the signup page.

Now, what was interesting was that I found other employees connected to Wilson in top positions as well, including Senior Director Shane Stockwell and Operations Manager Andrew Neill. I contacted all three of them with questions and I shared my personal email address if they wished to contact me there.

Unfortunately, however, it has been several weeks since I contacted them, and they still have not gotten back in touch with me. I assume they did not trust me because I hastily put together a LinkedIn account to contact them. The furthest I ever got with my investigation was for Andrew Neill to view my profile page.

While I cannot rule out the possibility they deliberately stayed quiet in order to save Steve Wilson’s reputation, I cannot say there is definitive evidence to suggest that was what they were doing in the first place, either. For now, we can only take a grain of salt whenever we talk to EB Games employees, and be sure to keep the rumour in mind for any future titles that are similar in nature to Gal*Gun and Senran Kagura.