Taiwanese developer Red Candle Games initially removed its well-received horror game Devotion five months ago in February 2019 when Steam users discovered art assets used in the game that supposedly mocked Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Devotion is a first-person horror game, where players assume the role of troubled screenwriter Du Feng Yu who has to navigate through the rooms in a Taipei apartment complex that represent various years in the lives of the Du family during the 1980s.

Although the developer has since apologized and promised to perform a “complete QA check” on the game, their latest official statement (posted on Twitter) conveys that Devotion won’t be re-released or become available again anytime soon. From the sound of it, it may never return ever again.

Greetings, we are Red Candle Games from Taiwan. To all of our players, industry and media friends, we would like to provide an update on ‘Devotion’. pic.twitter.com/wfGTUbHtHx

— redcandlegames (@redcandlegames) July 15, 2019

Red Candle Games does offer a tiny flicker of hope for fans of the game that they would consider re-releasing the game in the future but only if “the public would be willing to view this game rationally and allow us the opportunity to rebuild trust with our players.”

Coincidentally, this statement arrives less than a week since it was reported that Devotion publisher Indievent had its business license revoked by the Chinese government due to the controversy generated by the game.

The so-called controversy originally began when players discovered a scroll containing the name of Chinese President Xi Jinping in the game, which was placed next to the name Winnie The Pooh and the word ‘moron’.

The scroll ‘mocking’ Xi Jinping.

Savvy Internet users will understand the connection right away, as it is a popular online meme used to mock Xi Jinping after he banned Winnie The Pooh in China just because of ‘similarities’ between the president and the beloved yellow honey-loving bear.

At one point, reports were coming out that the scenes in Kingdom Hearts 3 featuring Winnie The Pooh were censored when the highly-anticipated game released in China earlier this year, due to the same reason.

Winnie The Pooh is just a blinding white light in China.