One of China’s best-selling new games has renewed a debate around sensitive gender issues in a country grappling with plunging marriage rates.
Revenge On Gold Diggers, a full-motion video interactive game, soared to the top of Steam’s revenue charts in China since its launch a week ago. Selling at US$6 (RM25) apiece, it’s now among the country’s top 10 best-selling titles on the PC platform, surpassing enduring hits like Black Myth: Wukong and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Developed by a little-known indie studio, the game unfolds as a series of choose-your-own-adventure episodes, where the player acts as a male protagonist interacting with five women. The female characters range from a live-streamer to a coffee shop barista, each of them exploiting their male counterparts for money. One of the women in the game boasts about her manipulation by saying, "He’s more obedient than a dog.”
These storylines have stirred controversy on China’s social networks, with critics slamming the game as a sexist fantasy. The developer responded by renaming the title to the more palatable Emotional Fraud Simulator while keeping all content intact.
Opinions have been split. A state newspaper in Beijing opined this week that the game helps "creatively strengthen young people’s awareness of safety in romantic relationships”, with other official outlets reposting the sentiment.
Marriage numbers in China have been falling for most of the past decade and plunged to a record low last year – compounding a demographic crisis that’s proliferating across the world’s second-largest economy. Facing job insecurity and uncertain futures, young people are finding solace in things like video games, pet ownership and trendy collectibles like Labubu.
Revenge On Gold Diggers has also been compared by Chinese social-media users and local media such as Sixth Tone with a recent real-life tragedy. Last year, a young gaming influencer nicknamed "Fat Cat” killed himself and the Internet attacked his girlfriend.
A legion of Chinese indie games studios are trying to make it on Steam in the romance simulation genre, after 2024’s surprise hit Love Is All Around. Featuring live-action footage, these games typically portray a male protagonist romantically pursuing multiple women and offer varying endings based on a player’s dialogue choices. – Bloomberg
