Popular online platform hosts anti-Armenian video game

A video game released in the popular gaming platform Steam where users aim to kill Armenian soldiers in a hypothetical Turkey-Armenia war sparked outrage in social media. 

In a video which introduces “Maroon Berets 2030” created by Turkish developers of Crescent Games, a narrator says “For the humankind, peace was never an option,” while Turkish troops carried by helicopters raid an Armenian base. 

An overview in Steam’s website depicts the game as an Action-RPG set in Turkey’s eastern border province of Agri as well as some provinces in the Armenian side of the border.

During the game rising tensions between the two neighboring countries lead to a war where special forces of Turkey named Maroon Berets are called to the duty to fight against Armenia. 

Crescent Games, which released the game in May 2022 on Steam does not own any other games on the platform.

The game was met by heavy criticism on social media. 

“I'd like Steam to remove this thinly veiled hate speech from their storefront,” one user said on Twitter, and asked everyone to report the game.