Square Enix Is at War With the Life Is Strange Community

In the time leading up to Life is Strange: Double Exposure’s release, the community and fans of the original title have been angry at the breaking up of Max and Chloe by the development studio, Deck Nine. Unfortunately, the way Square Enix has tried to fix that situation made everything much worse, but before that, we should look at what the situation in the community was.

So, the main Life is Strange subreddit, aptly named r/lifeisstrange, has had many posts and comments criticising the new title and the dev team for how it handled the story. At one point, people noticed that criticism was getting removed by the moderators without any official explanation as to why. Digging a bit deeper, it was found that one of the moderators was an ex-Deck Nine employee who worked on Double Exposure. As if the conflict of interest wasn’t clear enough, it was discovered that that same person had been actively speaking out against a leaker on X.

The moderation team then tried to do some damage control: they made a post in which they claim that somehow there wasn’t a conflict of interest there, for which they got the deserved reaction — “Jesus, what a shitshow”. They also claimed to have removed that moderator, but on the same day the moderator was removed, a new moderator was added — an entirely new account with no post history. I think you see where I’m going with this: there is no way the “new” moderator isn’t just the employee. The mod team is claiming they’re not but… yeah, I don’t think anyone can trust that. Furthermore, they refuse to confirm that all of the moderators are unrelated to Square Enix.

In reaction to this happening, another subreddit became a refuge for anyone critical of the new instalment to the franchise, r/pricefield. Appropriately named after the relationship of Max Caulfield and Chloe Price, this subreddit consists mainly of people who want to see these two get the ending they deserve. Not being affiliated with Square Enix or Deck Nine in any way, that subreddit didn’t just allow negative opinions about Double Exposure, it also allowed leaks and data mines as well, but only in one specific megathread. It’s important to keep in mind that the moderation team itself did not post anything of the sort; it just didn’t delete anything posted by the community.

So, amid all this community backlash, leaks, and data mining, what did Square Enix do? Probably the last thing they should have done — issued a fuck ton of DMCA takedowns. These came in waves: the first was targeting leaked and datamined content about episodes 3 – 5 of the game. Whilst I wouldn’t call it okay to issue the takedowns, these are leaks so I could give Square Enix the benefit of the doubt… if not for the second wave. The second wave took down a post compiling comments made by Deck Nine employees — not leaks, not sensitive information — publicly shared comments made by employees. It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of takedowns have been issued on posts and comments made by a Deck Nine whistleblower, who shared a lot of information on how development went that way.

In reaction, the r/pricefield mod team wrote an open letter to Square Enix, in which they called out its abuse of the DMCA system. It provides some more context and information, but most of what it says is irrelevant for our purposes. Square Enix has replied, although in a roundabout way, to the letter, their statement is as follows: “In relation to DMCA notices, all steps taken were in accordance with appropriate legal requirements and reddit’s own procedures for reporting intellectual property violations. These processes apply to infringing content shared prior to a game’s release, including leaks or confidential information due to breach of non-disclosure agreements and datamined content. No DMCA notices were sent regarding any posts outside of these circumstances.” Not only did they double down on trying to silence the community, but this answer is factually wrong — non-disclosure agreements only bind the employees: if they made a comment breaking that agreement, only the person who signed the agreement can be punished, not anyone repeating it.

So what now? Well, as a pinned comment under the open letter, the moderation team has called for people to keep Square Enix’s treatment of the community in mind when thinking about purchasing any game or merchandise from them. A guide on how to fight Square Enix’s abuse of power and pressure them into listening to the Life is Strange community has been created, even. Most importantly, though, people haven’t given up. The community still exists and still appreciates the original characters it fell in love with, and almost everyone is still hopeful about the future. In an interview with an active r/pricefield member, they said that people should keep in mind not to keep on being angry forever, and even that they still have faith in Deck Nine’s ability to fix the franchise.

After reaching out to the different moderation teams of r/lifeisstrrange and r/pricefield, the former did not answer my questions. The r/pricefield moderation team has been very collaborative, though, and has called for more good-faith criticism of Deck Nine. Even further, the moderators of that subreddit have said that even though a lot of trust has been broken, it’s possible for Square Enix to earn some of the community’s faith back by listening and rectifying the issues in the next Life is Strange game.

Asking for an official statement, the moderators of r/lifeisstrange have remained quiet as they did for my request for an interview. The moderators of r/pricefield had the following statement to make: 

“At the end of the day, we’re just a bunch of Life is Strange fans trying to celebrate and enjoy two of the most beloved characters in the franchise. Because of that, it’s been both deeply saddening and incredibly frustrating to see how [Deck Nine] and Square Enix have treated us — one of the most enthusiastic and outspoken offshoots of the fandom. Not only are they trying to silence genuine criticism and snuff out the voices of rightfully disgruntled fans, [but] they’re also making attempts at intimidating members of the community with DMCA takedown notices and abusing copyright law to control the reach of publicly available information. It’s given us very little hope for the future of the franchise, which is pretty chilling to think about. We’d like members of the community to know that we aren’t going anywhere though. As long as we’re around, we’ll keep on loving these characters for as long as we possibly can. They can’t take that from us :)”

I’ve also reached out to Square Enix asking for its side of the story, but as of this time no reply has been given.