Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Concept Art Sparks Controversy

Square Enix and Eidos Montreal have recently published a number of concept art images for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, meant to showcase the game’s vision of the future for various cities of the world, in an effort to further promote the game before its release near the end of the month.

How successful this effort to promote the game was will likely be debated for a long while, but if you believe in the idea that all publicity is good publicity, then it might just be the best stunt the publisher has pulled yet, though it’s hard to gauge whether that was intentional or not.

The piece intended to showcase a futuristic Moscow includes a number of protestors rallying under an “Augs Lives Matter” slogan, which is obviously a reference to the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged after the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the shooting of Treyvon Martin, a case that offered more than enough fuel to the fire of racial debates in the United States. Because of the obvious and intentional parallel, many commentators (including some game journalists and other developers,) took to social media to complain about a choice that was seen as insensitive. 

For what it’s worth, executive brand director Andre Vu claimed on Twitter that the usage of the Augs Lives Matter slogan was a complete coincidence and not connected in any way with the real protest movement. For what it’s worth, in such sensitive times, I figure it might have been a better idea to pick another piece of concept art or edit it slightly for marketing purposes.