SonicFox Skullgirls Controversy

Overview

SonicFox Skullgirls Controversy refers to the discourse surrounding a recent update to fighting game Skullgirls that included gamer SonicFox in the background of one of the game's stages. Shortly after the update was released for the game, a mod was created that allowed players to remove SonicFox from the game. Critics of the update were accused of bigotry toward SonicFox based on their identity, who is both queer and a furry.

Background

On May 22nd, 2020, popular queer furry gamer SonicFox^[1] announced that a recent Skullgirls update included them in the game as a background NPC character (shown below). The inclusion was praised by Kotaku,^[2] who wrote, "Sure, some on-loookers have taken issue with SonicFox being in Skullgirls now because, let’s be honest, they don’t like how proud SonicFox is of being non-binary, or gay, or black, or a furry. They’ll just have to deal with it. This is the fighting game community at its best."

Developments

The update quickly divided players of Skullgirls. The day after the update was announced, a mod was created by Steam users Hellrot-chan and Rouzel^[3] to remove SonicFox from the game. Some players claimed that they were banned from Steam if they spoke negatively about SonicFox's inclusion.^[4] A thread in the /r/Skullgirls^[5] subreddit talking about the mod was locked after commenters left angry comments about SonicFox and each other.

On Twitter, several users mocked those angry about SonicFox's inclusion. User @krunkidile^[6] wrote, "People mad about SonicFox being in Skullgirls aren't mad because they're homophobic. They're mad because a deviation from their norm has been put into a medium they thought was only for them, and it threatens them feeling like the superior majority. Also they're homophobic," gaining over 1,200 retweets and 5,400 likes (shown below, left). User @_Virus_Kid_^[7] wrote, 'sonicfox in skullgirls would be like booting up smash and seeing hungrybox on battlefield. nobody wants that, it's out of place!' i would literally never quit smash if hungrybox was standing in the background of battlefield and popped off whenever a stock was lost" (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References