Team behind Hatred lashes out in blog post, thanks press for attention

Destructive Creations, the Polish studio behind the upcoming game Hatred, has been accused of being neo-Nazi sympathizers and anti-Islamic xenophobes because of the organizations and people that they "like" on Facebook. Their game is, in their own words, over-the-top violent and purposefully insensitive to "social justice" themes.

Yesterday, CEO Jaroslaw Zielinski spoke with Polygon about his feelings over the accusations and promised more clarification. Today, individual members of the development team made personal statements. In a blog post titled "The First Storm Resisted" Zielinski and others formally responded to the accusations made against them.

"My grand-grand father was killed by Gestapo," writes Zielinski. "Some members of my family were fighting against nazi occupation in the Polish underground army called 'Armia Krajowa'. My forefathers suffered greatly because of totalitarian regimes, so who the fuck would I be if I'd truly support any of Nazi activists?

"The hateful title I'm working on (where virtual character hates virtual characters), doesn't have any connection to what I truly believe and think, there is a real-life outside, you know? Maybe you should try it? I will never ever again respond to any of those accusations, this is my ultimate statement."

"Nazi Germany is responsible for killing 6 million people in Poland," writes Marcin Kazmierczak. "Half of them were Jews, half of them Polish. My family suffered many losses during the World War II. Anybody accusing me for being a follower of said ideology should really think twice before doing so and consider reading some books on the topic. ... Values like pluralism, democratic opposition and the right to manifest one's own views shouldn’t be called ‘the lack of tolerance’. Finally regarding my attitude towards gays let me just say that I have a few gay friends that I deeply respect as people and have no problem with their sexual orientation."

"In response to repeated allegations against me," writes Jakub Stychno, "I’d like to state that I’m opposed to all totalitarian ideologies. The t-shirt that I’m wearing on our team picture refers to National Polish Army troops, that in 1945 refused to lay down arms and continue fighting against the new invader, to regain independent Poland. They did so because they’ve rightly anticipated Soviet security service repressions against Poland's already demilitarized army. I would also like to emphasize that until the year 1945 those troops were actively fighting against the Third Reich occupation. Those soldiers are Polish national heroes and as such deserve commemoration."

CEO Jaroslaw Zielinski also states that while "we knew that our reveal will cause some shitstorm" his team did not expect such a wide or vocal reaction.

"Many can call us 'attention whores,'" Zielinski continued. "Well, we try to get world's attention to our product and as you can see — it worked perfectly. ... We wish to thank all of our haters and all upset press for a great marketing campaign they've done for us.

"A week ago, we were a little company from the middle of nowhere, just some guys making some game. Today everyone heard about 'Hatred' and us. All thanks goes to those who were trying to harm us (with no desired effect, what a pity)."

Edit: The original version of this story listed the company name as Destructive Games. It is in fact Destructive Creations. Additionally, we've cleaned up the quoted sections of copy for readability. The original document is linked below.