A popular YouTuber who recently caused controversy for his views on immigration and race has been dropped from his voice-acting role in the upcoming Yooka-Laylee game.
Indie developer Playtonic decided to remove JonTron, real name is Jon Jafari, from the game following remarks he made on a Twitch livestream. He suggested that America should be predominately white, that wealthy black people have committed more crimes than poor white people, and Mexican immigrants are attempting to claim parts of the US.
The stream followed a number of tweets from Jafari defending Iowa Representative Steve King's "We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies" comment. "Wow, how scandalous, Steve King doesn't want his country invaded by people who have contempt for his culture and people! NAZI!!!" tweeted Jafari, who is of Iranian and Hungarian descent.
Wow, how scandalous, Steve King doesn't want his country invaded by people who have contempt for his culture and people! NAZI!!!
--- Jon Jafari (@JonTronShow) March 12, 2017
"We recently became aware of comments made by voice artist JonTron after development on Yooka-Laylee had been completed," UK developer Playtonic told GameIndustry.biz.
"JonTron is a talented video presenter who we were initially, two years ago, happy to include as a voice contributor in our game. However, in light of his recent personal viewpoints we have made the decision to remove JonTron's inclusion in the game via a forthcoming content update."
Jafari's YouTube channel, JonTronShow, has lost thousands of subscribers in the wake of his comments, but still has more than 3.1 million followers.
Yooka-Laylee is the spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. As a fan of the original, Jafari was asked by Playtonic to voice one of the minor characters in its game, which launches on April 11. Jafari says he understands the company's decision.
Unfortunate to see Playtonic remove me from Yooka Laylee, but I understand their decision. I wish them the best with their launch!
--- Jon Jafari (@JonTronShow) March 23, 2017
In the rest of its statement, Playtonic emphasized that in no way did it support Jafari's views.
"We would like to make absolutely clear that we do not endorse or support JonTron's personal viewpoints and that, as an external fan contributor, he does not represent Playtonic in any capacity. Playtonic is a studio that celebrates diversity in all forms and strives to make games that everyone can enjoy. As such, we deeply regret any implied association that could make players feel anything but 100% comfortable in our game worlds, or distract from the incredible goodwill and love shown by our fans and Kickstarter backers."