Ready or Not: All you need to know about the controversy and surge in popularity

Ready or Not is a game that wants to be realistic and has big shoes to fill. Its developer, VOID Interactive, never shied away from the direct comparison with the on-ice SWAT franchise by Sierra, and has worked for years to make a tactical FPS that puts the players in the shoes of the police officers who have to respond to violent and dangerous threats.

The strive for realism in Ready or Not means that the game is not afraid of depicting some dark stories and disturbing crime scenes. However, for the game’s console port, some minor visual changes were made to, in the words of the developers, “comply with platform holders and age-rating bodies only to the letter of the regulations, no further”. This decision has sparked controversy around the game.

Ready or Not is a tactical first-person shooter that tasks the player with resolving complex, high-stakes crime scenarios that often involve morality decisions. The objective is to save lives and prevent violence. The developers have implemented a high level of realism, which means that some missions and scenarios are very reminiscent of real-life events despite the absence of real names and places.

During its early access in 2021, for example, the game lost its publisher (at the time Team 17) when it announced that a school shooting level was in development. Also, the game was briefly taken down in 2022 due to a dispute about a level reminiscent of a real-life nightclub shooting. Despite the many hurdles, VOID Interactive received praise when the full game was released on PC in 2023.

Ready or Not’s popularity stems from its uniqueness. It’s undoubtedly one of the darkest first-person shooters on the market, excluding horror games, and caters to the audience that has been waiting years for a new SWAT game. Up until the controversy, the game had very positive reviews on Steam, praising the adrenaline rush of the tense situations, both the solo and co-op experience, and the complete lack of microtransactions with all the cosmetics available as progression unlocks.

Now, the game has almost 220,000 reviews on Steam, which, on average, remain mostly positive. The “Recent Reviews” category, however, is mostly negative, with more than 30,000 users giving the game a thumbs down. These reviews cite the developers’ willingness to bend the knee to corporate policies as the reason for their dissatisfaction, something they did not do previously during the early access period.

In June 2025, VOID Interactive announced that some visual changes (six in total) would be made to the console version of Ready or Not, coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X on July 15.

This has sparked a lot of debate because the developer changed its game’s creative vision to have an easier time with the PlayStation Store and the Xbox Store, whose guidelines for restricting content are notoriously stricter than Steam’s. However, the straw that broke the camel’s back was that the censorship was retroactively applied to the PC version of the game to unify all versions for ease of updateability.

After a review bombing campaign and a call for a boycott until the censorship is reversed, however, the game seems to have risen, not dwindled, in popularity. SteamCharts shows a steep rise in player numbers, reaching a concurrent player figure of more than 44,000, a peak the game has not seen in more than a year on Valve’s platform. 

VOID Interactive’s statement seems to ring true: 

“The changes with the console version are small enough that most people here wouldn’t notice if we didn’t say anything, but we want to be transparent. It’s largely just evidence and nudity that’s altered, and the texture changes don’t affect the PC version”. 

As the developers remain firm behind their choices, the negative reviews remain in place.

The Ready or Not controversy is one of principle. A development studio so hellbent on creative freedom and artistic vision decided to censor the contents of its game to get into the console market. However, the discussions and calls for a boycott have had the opposite effect, giving the title a boost in popularity and sales.

In a genre deemed not very profitable by big studios, more exposure and a debut on more platforms are good, but caving to the stores’ policies may have hindered the developer’s reputation among the most devoted fans. 

Adding to the PC version a slider similar to what the game Rust offers (which allows Steam players to customise their exposure to nudity and violence) would make a lot of angry users happy again, and is the number one most requested feature in comments and reviews.