Kakao Games softened one line in Guardian Tales — the boycott cut it from 5th to 24th

In August 2020, a month before its planned Sept 11 stock-market debut, Kakao Games quietly changed the Korean subtitle of a female character's line in its hit mobile game Guardian Tales from 'You whore' to 'You clown' — while leaving the English version unchanged. The company later said the edit anticipated that the original could provoke female players and feminists. Instead, male gamers revolted, calling it excessive 'precautionary measures', and a boycott movement named 'Femi Hunting' spread through gaming communities.

The damage showed up in the numbers the same day: Guardian Tales ranked fifth in sales on Google Play on Monday and had fallen to 24th by midnight, according to App Annie. The game's Google Play rating — 4.9 out of 5 across more than 10,000 reviews before the controversy — dropped drastically as fans posted that they had stopped playing. 'It will be hard for Guardian Tales to recover from the incident,' one commenter wrote.

Kakao Games, which handles marketing and distribution while US developer Kong Studios built the software, responded with personnel: several Guardian Tales Korea staff were reshuffled and replaced. 'The Guardian Tales Korean division has caused much distrust and disappointment among users... so we decided to replace our current Guardian Tales staff in Korea,' operations head Lee Shi-woo said in a statement. Korea's National Human Rights Commission separately warned that gaming companies caving to such pressure and disadvantaging employees to resolve it violates human rights.

The edit was silent and one-sided — Korean subtitles only, English untouched — so players read it as capitulation to 'radical feminism' rather than a standards decision.

The boycott targeted the company rather than the line: review-bombing dragged a 4.9-star rating built on 10,000+ reviews down within days.

Sales fell immediately — fifth to 24th on Google Play in one day per App Annie — turning a localization choice into a revenue event.

It landed one month before the company's Sept 11 IPO, compounding the reputational cost at the worst possible moment.

Employees absorbed the fallout: Korea staff were replaced, and the national human rights commission flagged that scapegoating staff to appease pressure is itself a violation.

Edits made quietly, for one audience and without explanation, read as capitulation: the players who felt targeted punish the platform, not the line — right before an IPO.

Kakao Games replaced its Korean Guardian Tales staff, with Lee Shi-woo admitting it would be difficult to regain users' trust. The 'Femi Hunting' boycott movement continued spreading among male gamers, and the company remained under fire as its Sept 11, 2020 listing approached.