The Coalition will „avoid highlighting or glorifying smoking,” starting with the newest instalment of the series formerly known as Gears of War.

Variety reports that a non-profit organization by the name of Truth Initiative contacted Turner Broadcasting, who runs ELeague, which has a Gears Summer Series Invitational event this weekend, and Truth Initiative is one of its promotional partners now. However, Turner directly turned its attention to Gears 5‘s devs regarding Truth Initiative’s request: remove smoking from the game.

Truth Initiative was founded in 1999. It’s one of the results of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which was signed between the US tobacco companies and the attorneys general of 46 states with the aim to recoup tobacco-related healthcare costs. Its stated goal is to „achieve a culture where all youth and young adults reject tobacco,” which it aims to achieve via various research initiatives as well as its Truth Campaign, a media campaign targeting reducing teen smoking.

„In the midst of the pervasive re-emergence of glamorized smoking imagery in pop culture, we commend [The Coalition] for taking smoking out of ‘Gears 5’ and ELeague for featuring this tobacco-free game during this weekend’s competition. We are hopeful that this decision will encourage other game developers and streaming tournaments to follow this lead and level up the gaming experience by going tobacco-free,” Robin Koval, the CEO of Truth Initiative, said. „I’ve seen firsthand the devastating impact of smoking. It’s always been important for me to not use smoking as a narrative device, which is why we made the conscious choice to avoid highlighting or glorifying smoking in ‘Gears 5‘ and throughout the Gears of War Universe moving forward,” Rod Fergusson, The Coalition’s studio head, added. An Xbox Game Studios representative said that this decision was entirely made by The Coalition – Microsoft did not pressure them to do anything.

Gears 5 is out on September 10 on Xbox One and Windows 10.

Source: Gamesindustry