Dubai: A new video game — under development and set to a post-apocalyptic Dubai backdrop — is not meant to offend anyone, says California game maker 2K Games.
Set for global release later this year under the name Spec Ops: The Line, the game is mature entertainment that uses the world-famous skyline of Dubai as the setting comparable to many other apocalypse-based movies and games in recent years.
Teaser trailers posted on the internet late last year spawned suggestions by gamers that the new shooter game might be offensive because it depicted Dubai in shambles.
Greg Kasavin, Producer of Spec Ops: The Line at 2K Games, said his firm's development team is "a multi-ethnic, multinational group of people of varying faiths and creeds and they are approaching this subject matter carefully and with confidence". The firm did not choose Dubai as the backdrop just to be controversial, he said.
"Although the game is intended to have a mature and provocative storyline, the premise and setting are not intended to be controversial for the sake of it. This game is a work of fiction and its premise can be likened to any number of disaster movies or games," Kasavin said and added, "We hope the citizens of Dubai do not perceive it to be in poor taste and judge it on its own merits as a work of entertainment fiction."
His firm has already released games around the world, including France, Germany, the US, the UK, Canada, Spain, Italy, Russia, Japan, etc. Team members at 2K Games are encouraged by the reaction they received to the trailers released late last year.
Spec Ops: The Line should hit shelves around the world some time after November, he said.
Game details
Exclusive glimpse by Kasavin into the game:
"The game takes place in an indeterminate year in the near future, after a series of cataclysmic sandstorms ravage Dubai, engulfing it in sand and leaving it cut off from the outside world. The city is mostly evacuated, but an American Colonel named John Konrad chooses to stay behind, defying orders to flee. However, the worst of the sandstorms hit before Konrad's work was finished, and he is presumed dead - until the Army picks up his distress signal. They send in a small squad of elite Delta Force operators, led by Captain Martin Walker, to discover the Colonel's whereabouts and bring him home. In the game, players will assume the role of Captain Walker as he discovers that Konrad is very much alive"
