Survival Island 3

Survival Island 3: Australia Story is an iOS and Android game created by Kristina Fedenkova of NIL Entertainment. The game was released onto the App Store and Google Play in December 2015. The game is a 3D first-person survival-action game in which the player is able to ally with or fight against Indigenous Australian people as well as a variety of Australian fauna while trying to survive. It attracted strong criticism in Australia for its allegedly racist presentation of Indigenous Australians, which were presented as "real Aboriginals" and a threat to the fair-skinned player's survival. The game was also criticised for allegedly encouraging the player to perpetrate violence against Indigenous Australians. Apple rated the game PG for ages 12 and up.^[1]

Reception

A Change.org petition was created by Georgia Mantle calling for the game to be removed from Google and Apple marketplaces. She wrote: "By shooting ‘dangerous Aboriginals’, this app makes us inhuman, it re-enforces racial violence, lack of punishment for white people taking black lives, it makes fun and sport of massacres and Frontier violence." The petition gathered over 20,000 signatures in less than 24 hours^[2] and as of 16 January 2016, it had received over 60,000 signatures.^[3] The petition was also seeking an apology from the game's developer.^[3]

Response

On 16 January 2016, the game was removed from the Apple App Store,^[4] which was followed by its removal from Google Play later that day. Videos of gameplay captured and published to YouTube were also removed.^[5] On 17 January the petition was closed after receiving a total of 84,672 supporters and achieving two of its objectives. Australia's Federal communications minister Mitch Fifield asked his staff to "provide advice on the circumstances of its release". He said of the game: "I am appalled that anyone would develop such a so called 'game' and that any platform would carry it."^[6]

References