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Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows (2025)
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Attachment In 2024, Ubisoft faced controversy over two instances related to the game's marketing prior to its release being delayed. The first instance revolved around them using a flag created by the Sekigahara Teppo-tai, a Japanese historical re-enactment group, as part of the game's concept art and marketing materials without the group's permission. Ubisoft Japan would later issue an apology for this, agreeing to remove the flag from the game's website, but stated that it would likely remain in the concept art as part of the game's printed art book, something that the Sekigahara Teppo-tai would later request be removed as well. On July 23, Ubisoft posted an apology to Twitter for including material in their marketing that "caused concern within the Japanese community".

Two months after this statement, Ubisoft would face criticism again for a collectible figurine produced by PureArts featuring the protagonists Yasuke and Naoe standing in the ruins of a one-legged torii gate. This drew ire from critics who were already upset over Ubisoft's handling of the game's historical background, as the only known one-legged torii in Japan is located at the Sannō Shrine in Nagasaki. This torii was one of the few surviving structures after the United States' atomic bombing of the city in 1945. It became one-legged as a result of it being within 900 meters of the explosion's hypocenter, and serves as a local reminder of the bombing today. On September 24, just a few days after the figurine's announcement, Ubisoft cancelled their appearance at Tokyo Game Show for "various circumstances" (likely including these prior marketing controversies among other development factors) and later announced that the game's release would be delayed into the next year to allow for more time to polish it. PureArts' pre-order page for the figurine was removed from their website around the same time. They later released a statement on October 15 apologizing for the "insensitive design" and stated they would redesign the figurine for a later release.
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Apology, Artwork/Illustration, Complaint, Corporate Affairs, Development, General, Merchandise, Plagiarism, Real Life, Release Date, Website
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month October 8, 2024
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Wii Karaoke U by Joysound
Wii Karaoke U by Joysound (2012)
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Apology, Complaint, General, Real Life, Regulatory Content Rating
person VinchVolt calendar_month September 23, 2024
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Shining Nikki
Shining Nikki (2019)
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2
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In 2020, to celebrate the launch of Shining Nikki in South Korea, Paper Games released a series of in-game wardrobe items based on the hanbok, a traditional Korean dress. This led to complaints from Chinese players, who objected to the hanbok being treated as a traditional Korean item and claimed that it was actually rooted in Chinese culture. On November 4, Paper Games released a statement supporting the argument that the hanbok was not Korean, and that "as a Chinese company, we want to reiterate that our stance is always consistent with our country China." They also announced that any accounts spreading misinformation about China or trying to insult the country would be blocked, implying that arguing that the hanbok was Korean counted as an offense. The hanbok items were ultimately removed from the game a day later.

This caused backlash from Korean players, who retaliated by deleting the game and applying for refunds for in-app purchases. On November 6, the game was delisted from Korean stores, resulting in demands that Paper Games be investigated for stealing Korea's cultural heritage and closing the service without offering compensation. This got to the point where Lee Sang-heon, a Democratic Party lawmaker from South Korea's National Assembly, called out Paper Games for siding with false claims from Chinese netizens and directing criticism towards Korean users. He also warned that their actions had violated South Korea's fair trade rules as they did not offer refunds and compensations prior to pulling the game from the country.
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Apology, Censorship, Complaint, Customization, Delisted, General, Legal Affairs, Misconception, Politics, Press Release, Real Life, Social Media, Update Difference
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month June 3, 2024
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Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows (2025)
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Yasuke is the series' first main protagonist to be based on a real historical figure, but his real-life identity and status serving under Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga has been the subject of a contentious debate among historians. There are few scholarly/historical resources available describing him and his life, and no known resources from when he was alive that refer to him as a samurai, with the most common belief being his title was a retainer.

His reveal as a lead in the game on May 15, 2024 caused polarizing reactions worldwide on social media. Fans critical of the decision claimed Ubisoft were going against the series' penchant for accurate historical backgrounds and misrepresented Japan, which the series had never covered in-depth, by inflating Yasuke's role in history and not having both protagonists be Japanese (the other protagonist, Naoe, is Japanese), claiming he was not actually a samurai. Fans in support of his role claiming he was actually a samurai called these objections racist and based on narrow-minded arguments and inferences, with some claiming that Asian samurai protagonists in media were oversaturated and that complaints would be the same if the game was set in Africa and starred an African protagonist. This intense fighting led to an edit war on Yasuke's English Wikipedia article, with administrators publicly calling its Talk page "a complete dumpster fire". As of October 8, the consensus that the Talk page reached appears to be that the available historical resources are inconclusive as to if he was or was not a samurai, but that scholars consistently describe Yasuke as a samurai without any sources found where scholars do not describe him as one.

This speculation and debate allows popular media to take creative liberties in adapting him, often depicting him as a high-ranking samurai, and Ubisoft seemed to take a similar direction from the outset. A press release at the game's announcement stated:

"Yasuke: A Real-Life Samurai:
Ubisoft Quebec wanted to include a Samurai, and Yasuke's story was open-ended enough to allow for creativity; there are still plenty of questions and speculation surrounding him. The fascinating facts, though, were undisputable: of African origin, he arrived in Japan enslaved by the Portuguese; he impressed with size, strength, and wits; he served under the Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga. There must have been something exceptional about Yasuke to succeed in the service of a personality like Nobunaga's, [...] and the goal has been to expound on this in [the game] through his curiosity, openness, respect for values and tradition, valor, warmth, and charisma."

Despite the header used, the quote is carefully worded to stop short of directly calling Yasuke a samurai, with more advertising describing him as a "samurai of historical legend". Game director Charles Benoit later acknowledged his life "is surrounded by mysteries" and that "[Yasuke] told us to tell" his story seen in the game, which was also described by associate narrative director Brooke Davies as historical fiction.

Creative director Jonathan Dumont stated in a Famitsu interview on May 15 that they chose Yasuke to fit with the story of a foreigner who fights off oppressing forces like the Portuguese slave trade, while exploring a country unknown to him alongside the player, stating that they were "first looking for "our samurai," someone who could be our non-Japanese eyes". The following day, the interviews were edited to remove this quote, and to change quotes either directly or contextually referring to Yasuke as an "outsider" to being a "foreign-born samurai". After further mounting controversy, Ubisoft posted a statement to Twitter in English and Japanese on July 23 apologizing for elements in their promotional materials that "caused concern within the Japanese community", reiterating that the game's story was intended to be historical fiction and not an accurate recreation of events, and that Yasuke's real-life status was "a matter of debate and discussion". The Japanese statement received Community Notes pointing out their stance contradicted several quotes from both Famitsu and an Xbox Wire interview that emphasized confirming historical accuracy, but was removed from the statement hours later.
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Adaptation, Advertisement/Commercial, Apology, Complaint, Corporate Affairs, Development, Early Idea, First, General, Inspiration, Misconception, Press Release, Race, Real Life, Reviews, Social Media, Suggested, Theory, Website
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month May 19, 2024
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Game website with "samurai of historical legend" quote:
https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/assassins-creed/shadows

Ubisoft press release:
https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/2LH4Ael4X1TlNJY3B3aYg5/assassins-creed-shadows-launches-november-15-features-dual-protagonists-in-feudal-japan

Ubisoft Forward - June 10, 2024:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPoJUPrCkkg#t=4602s

IGN Japan interview with Brooke Davies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqwitaREyd0

Ubisoft article with several videos explaining historical backgrounds behind previous Assassin's Creed games:
https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/6d4zQXyH0VF6z75Ab7jfss/discover-the-real-history-behind-every-assassins-creed

IGN articles:
https://www.ign.com/articles/when-and-where-is-assassins-creed-shadows-set
https://www.ign.com/articles/assassins-creed-shadows-yasuke-asian-protagonist

TheGamer article:
https://www.thegamer.com/african-assassins-creed-shadows-controversy/

Time article:
https://time.com/6978997/assassins-creed-shadow-yasuke-controversy/

Forbes article mentioning Wikipedia edit war and international reactions:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2024/05/15/japanese-fans-are-puzzled-that-yasuke-is-in-assassins-creed-shadows/

Yasuke English Wikipedia article (Note: while much of this controversy occurred on English language Wikipedia, bear in mind that Wikipedia articles by themselves are not reliable sources for historical research, and the English article is not a uniform representation of the information on Yasuke across the different language versions of Wikipedia that have this article. There are varying primary, secondary, historical and pop culture sources suggested for and used in all of these articles either backing up verified information about him, or making different claims that may not be accurate.):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Yasuke

Wikipedia administrator discussion:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240518220622/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Talk:Yasuke_is_a_complete_dumpster_fire

Earliest archive of original Famitsu interview (in Japanese; English machine translations for all archives of this article compared between Google Translate and DeepL prior to publishing this submission. Deleted quote in Japanese is "まず“私たちの侍”、つまり日本人ではない私たちの目になれる人物を探していましたが、これは") (May 15):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240515185159/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5194

Archived edited interview (May 16):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240516194746/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5194

Latest archived edit (May 18):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240518034336/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5194

Ubisoft July statement (in English and Japanese; third link contains archived screenshots of the Japanese Community Notes):
https://x.com/assassinscreed/status/1815674592444187116
https://x.com/UBISOFT_JAPAN/status/1815674629643719061
https://x.com/DLibryum/status/1816342689127772542

Xbox interview:
https://news.xbox.com/ja-jp/2024/05/16/assassins-creed-shadows-interview/
Stellar Blade
Stellar Blade (2024)
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Apology, Asset Reuse, Censorship, Coincidence, Development, General, Mistake, Race, Reviews, Suggested, Update Difference
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month April 24, 2024
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Company: Funomena
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Apology, Complaint, Corporate Affairs, Financial Affairs, General, Real Life, Social Media
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month March 26, 2024
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Goddess of Victory: Nikke
Goddess of Victory: Nikke (2022)
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On January 11, 2023, the game's official Thai Facebook page posted an advertisement that was quickly met with backlash from the Thai player community. The ad depicted a player engaging in the game due to him not enjoying his birthday party. Entranced by the anime characters' buttocks physics in an erratic manner, his behavior gets interrupted and questioned by a partygoer who gives him his birthday cake with candles. He then wishes for the characters Anis, Rapi, and Marian to appear in real life, and in a vision prior to blowing out the candles, the three arrive in his home and proceed to twerk in front of him, simulating the game's attack animations. The advertisement was heavily criticized for depicting the player base as perverts who only play the game for the attractive characters, prompting the developers to issue an official apology in Thai and take down the ad. However, the removal of the ad caused another round of backlash from a different part of the fanbase, one that was already upset with the developers after a new character costume had been released with more clothing than initial leaks for a winter holiday event had suggested, leading to accusations of censorship. Reportedly, some fans even went as far as to say that there was nothing wrong with the ad for "being honest about why some players are attracted to the game."
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Advertisement/Commercial, Apology, Censorship, Character Design, Complaint, General, Real Life
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month February 17, 2024
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The Callisto Protocol
The Callisto Protocol (2022)
subdirectory_arrow_right Striking Distance Studios (Company)
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On January 9, 2023, a report was released by GamesIndustry.biz revealing that over 20 developers who worked on The Callisto Protocol were not included in the game's end credits, including multiple full-time developers and other key contributors. The decision to leave out these developers was described as "egregious" by one unnamed employee, while another accused the game’s developer, Striking Distance, of "playing favorites" and only crediting those that "they liked or had some sort of relationship with". The report also highlighted the intense work culture at Striking Distance with a controversy involving the studio's director Glen Schofield in September 2022, where he made a tweet about his employees working "six-seven days a week" for "12-15 hour days". At the time before the report's release, this tweet about the crunch culture at the studio was roundly criticized; it was later deleted and Schofield issued an apology, stating that the studio valued "passion and creativity, not long hours." In June 2023, an update was released for the game that added the names of over 50 previously uncredited developers to the credits, a notably higher head count than the numbers in the original report. These credits were added to the "Miscellaneous" group, which originally had only 18 names, and was also now renamed to "Additional Development".
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Apology, Complaint, Credits, Crunch/Overwork, Development, Difficulty, General, Real Life, Social Media, Update Difference
person ProtoSnake calendar_month January 13, 2024
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Callisto Protocol developers left out of credits:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/callisto-protocol-developers-left-out-of-credits

Glen Schofield back pedals Callisto Protocol crunch comments:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/glen-schofield-back-pedals-callisto-protocol-crunch-comments

The Callisto Protocol Reportedly Left Around 20 Devs Out Of The Credits:
https://www.thegamer.com/the-callisto-protocol-left-20-devs-out-of-credits/

Developers left out of The Callisto Protocol credits accuse Striking Distance of "playing favourites":
https://www.eurogamer.net/developers-left-out-of-the-callisto-protocol-credits-accuse-striking-distance-of-playing-favourites

Callisto Protocol update restores omitted developers to credits:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/callisto-protocol-update-restores-omitted-developers-to-credits/
Bubble Bobble Revolution
Bubble Bobble Revolution (2005)
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Attachment The initial US release of Bubble Bobble Revolution contained multiple large bugs, including palette errors and multiple instances of enemies not spawning or dying instantly. Round 30 of the game's boss does not summon, impeding players from progressing beyond that stage, rendering 70 of the game's 100 levels inaccessible. As compensation, replacement copies were provided to those who complained, along with a free copy of Rainbow Islands Revolution and a printed apology.
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Apology, Complaint, Glitch, Inaccessible Area, Unwinnable
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month December 26, 2023
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Poptropica
Poptropica (2007)
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3
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In December 2023, a Discord user posing as a representative of the developers of Poptropica stated on the server for the fan website Poptropica Help Blog that the game would be shutting down after December 29th. The account first appeared on the server in 2022, and while the blog did not do a complete screening to ensure the account was officially associated with the developers, it was eventually given the role of "Poptropica Creator" after they determined it was official based on its posting history. Many players initially believed the announcement was legitimate after Poptropica suddenly closed membership registrations earlier in the month. Shortly after the shut down announcement, the official Poptropica Twitter and Instagram accounts decried the Discord account as being unofficial, and assured players that the game would still be playable after December 29th, with all memberships up to the end of the year being available for free. The blog posted an apology for perpetuating the rumors the following day, but within the next year, the validity of the rumors being false would come into question.

On January 18, 2024, possibly in response to the rumors the prior month, Coolmath Games revealed that they had been in talks with the team behind Poptropica to host the game on their site exclusively, with the game remaining playable on Steam and mobile devices. This would later be confirmed by Poptropica themselves through a pop-up message on their website shortly afterwards. Notably, in a blog post expanding upon the news, Coolmath Games revealed that "the original Poptropica decided to wind down", something that had never been officially stated by Poptropica themselves. This would suggest that there was some degree of truth to the initial hoax as well as various rumors.
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Apology, Corporate Affairs, General, Hoax, Real Life, Rumor, Suggested
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month December 19, 2023
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Poptropica Help Blog post about the shutdown claims:
https://poptropi.ca/2023/12/16/is-poptropica-shutting-down/

Official Poptropica statement regarding December shutdown rumors:
https://twitter.com/Poptropica/status/1735509964381372710

Coolmath Games announcement:
https://twitter.com/TheRealCoolmath/status/1748068741743555024

Poptropica Help Blog about the news:
https://poptropi.ca/2024/01/19/moving-coolmath/

Coolmath Games blog announcement:
https://www.coolmathgames.com/blog/poptropica-migration
Platform: Xbox One
subdirectory_arrow_right PlayStation 4 (Platform)
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Attachment In 2019, UK bargain store Aldi attempted a publicity stunt known as the "Teatime Takedown", where parents would send Aldi their childrens' usernames on gaming platforms (with the service being provided for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, and unusually the streaming platform Twitch) and the supermarket would send professional gamers to defeat the child in-game so they would eat their food, though Aldi claimed that the effectiveness of the program may vary. Despite a released commercial for the campaign showing children "rage quitting" FPS games, the hired eSports teams, originating from Veloce, specialized in racing games. This sparked massive backlash within the UK eSports community, to the point where Resolve eSports offered to send its players to help kids fight back against the bullies. Aldi would eventually cancel the campaign and send coupons to those who complained as a form of apology. Print adverts were made, but are not known to have been printed in any magazines or catalogues, and radio and till reciept ads were planned.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Apology, Cancelled Release, Competitive, Complaint, General, Livestreaming, Mistake, Online Play, Real Life, Unreleased Content
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 30, 2023
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Flappy Bird
Flappy Bird (2013)
subdirectory_arrow_right Flappy Birds Family (Game)
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Flappy Bird was removed from app stores by creator Dong Nguyen on February 8th 2014, due to being overwhelmed by its success and feeling guilt over the addictive, frustrating nature of the game, which he had originally intended to be relaxing. Although many speculated that the game was taken down by Nintendo due to the game's pipes and their similarity to the pipes from the Mario series, both Nguyen and Nintendo denied this.

Nguyen claimed that his worries about the game had lost him sleep, and removing the game from sale managed to restore piece of mind. Despite this, Nguyen did promise a Flappy Bird comeback, albeit in a less addictive form, which would eventually come with the release of Flappy Birds Family for Amazon Fire TV.

Some eBay users attempted to sell the iPhones with the original game installed for up to $99,900, but the listings were removed due to eBay's rules against selling technology that has not been factory reset.
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Apology, Complaint, Corporate Affairs, Difficulty, Legal Affairs, Meme, Plagiarism, Sprite/Graphical Animation, Theory
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 24, 2023
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Bad News Baseball
Bad News Baseball (1989)
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In the page of the manual for Bad News Baseball that introduces the girls' team mode, it explains that the girls' mode still shows boys in the cutscenes and follows up with "sorry for letting you down".
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Apology, General, Male/Female Gender, Manual
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 15, 2023
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Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994)
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2
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Attachment In Carnival Night Zone, there is an infamous obstacle known as the "barrel" - a red and white tube that moves up and down depending on what direction is pressed on the control stick, but is animated in a way that makes it appear as if you have to bounce on it to gain momentum - this obstacle has caused a lot of grief to Sonic fans playing the game over the years, and as a result Sonic 3 game designer Takashi Iizuka and lead programmer Yuji Naka officially apologized for the barrel at the Summer of Sonic 2011.
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Apology, Complaint, Difficulty, Mistake
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 11, 2023
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Pokémon Platinum Version
Pokémon Platinum Version (2008)
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Apology, Bonus Content, Race, Real Life
person Tuli0hWut calendar_month March 21, 2023
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Franchise: Mario
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Apology, General, Mistake, Real Life, Social Media
person GamerBen144 calendar_month May 20, 2022
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Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (2010)
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Attachment On the early releases of the game, Sonia appears on a playing card representing the Queen of Diamonds which can be spotted on the ground of the race track, Roulette Road. Sonia's head was taken from a piece of fan art from DeviantArt drawn by a user formerly known as Lightning_duchess (now RianaLD). Steve Lycett, Game director commented on the cameo by saying; "We take these things seriously at Sumo and will be contacting the original artist directly to offer our sincere apologies to her, this was entirely unintentional. Not much else I can really add!" This image was only supposed to be used as a placeholder.
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Apology, Artwork/Illustration, Cameo, Development, Easter Egg, Fan Works, General, Mistake, Placeholder, Release Difference, Version Difference
person CathcyJ calendar_month June 6, 2014
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