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Hello everyone,
On 30th September we revealed a character intended for Nippon Marathon 2, a Canadian Mountie. What we didn't know was that the 30th September was Truth and Reconciliation Day - A Day that honours victims and survivors of Canada's residential schools, which sought to forcefully assimilate indigenous children in which the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) were involved.
Here is some more information on Truth and Reconciliation Day.
A member of our Discord channel brought this to our attention and we wish to make sure that Nippon Marathon remains a fun experience for everyone.
We're sorry, we were unaware of something that is very important to many families. Our ignorance is not an excuse and we have taken time to reflect upon this.
We want to ensure that Nippon Marathon and future games are fun for everyone and is never meant to be offensive. This has caused us to take a step back and evaluate all of our NM2 characters, as the last thing we want to do is cause offence. In the original Nippon Marathon, we never assigned nationalities and we made sure that all the characters were voiced by individuals of different races and gender. We take this all very seriously.
In regards to Benton and Tony, we will be withdrawing them from the NM roster.
If you or anyone you know are experiencing pain or distress as a result of their (or someone they knows) Residential school experience, then please get in touch with the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (https://www.irsss.ca/)
We made a donation to the IRSSS this afternoon, consider making a donation to the IRSSS too.
Everyone reading this should feel free to talk to me or Amy about this or anything else. We are a safe space and our door is always open.
You can DM us on our company Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/OnionSoupLtd), my personal Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/MonAmieMadin), our discord (https://discordapp.com/invite/SpsyEHs), or even via email (amymadin@onionsoupinteractive.com)
Thank you