Fellow Traveller has revealed that, at the request of the developer, it is restricting sales in Israel of the Lovecraftian horror adventure game *Penguin Colony*, developed by ORIGAME DIGITAL.
The credits also include a message addressing the industry’s stance
This title is a cosmic horror adventure game from ORIGAME DIGITAL—the studio behind *Umrangi Generation*—that reinterprets H.P. Lovecraft’s novels *At the Mountains of Madness* and *Shadows Out of Time*.
Set in Antarctica in 1939, the game follows the perspective of a penguin as people descend into madness amid a conflict between the Nazis—who seek to harness the power of an ancient entity—and Kaitiaaki, a guardian of the indigenous people who aims to put that entity back to sleep.
Regarding the reason why this title is not available for sale in Israel, Fellow Traveller stated the following on the Steam forums:
While we generally aim to make our games available to as many players as possible, we strongly believe that developers have the right to decide where to sell their games.In this case, the developer requested that we suspend sales in Israel. In the absence of more organized sanctions, this action is intended to demonstrate solidarity with Palestine. We fully support their decision.
Additionally, the game’s credits include a message from the developer stating, “The fact that the gaming industry has continued to take a timid stance while the genocide of Palestinians by Israel persists will likely be recorded for posterity as part of this work,” thereby addressing the industry’s stance within the game itself.
Regarding sales policies for games amid the Israel-Palestine conflict, House House—the developer of the multiplayer adventure game *Big Walk*—recently issued a statement announcing that, in response to the BDS movement’s call to boycott Microsoft products, it would not release an Xbox version until Microsoft and Xbox are removed from the boycott list.
*Penguin Colony* is currently available on PC (Steam) and supports Japanese. It is scheduled for release on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 in 2027.
Game*Spark has also published a play report on this title and an interview with developer Naftri Faulkner, so be sure to check those out as well.
