'Hood Warfare 2,' a $5 gang shooter on Steam, is going viral
The low-budget shooter 'Hood Warfare 2' has become a viral hit on Steam, sparking controversy over its depiction of Chicago and Black gang culture. Critics argue the game relies on harmful stereotypes, while the developers remain anonymous.
Why it matters
The game's success highlights the power of content creators in driving sales for controversial indie titles and the ongoing debate regarding the representation of urban violence in media.
A $5 first-person shooter called Hood Warfare 2 has gone from near-obscurity to one of Steam's most talked-about releases in less than a week. Given the nature of the game, however, it's also drawn scrutiny for its content, its anonymous developers, and the creators who've played it live on stream.Made by an anonymous dev team called TrapStar Games, Hood Warfare 2 is a gang-themed, multiplayer Call of Duty clone set in "the streets" of Chicago, Illinois. Like Call of Duty, it has killstreaks, including a "drive by" and a "snitch," its version of the UAV drone.According to SteamDB data, it peaked at about 53 concurrent players on its Oct. 8 release day. Its player count climbed steadily before spiking past 11,700 on Oct. 12, with its all-time peak now at 15,258 as of this writing.By Steam's standards, that is a modest hit.
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