Smoking may make you look cool, but smoking is also not very good for you. There’s been a big push against tobacco products over the last few years with people being pushed more and more to either quit or move over to vaping. And today, a pretty unexpected source joins that push in the form of Gears 5.
As reported by Variety, the game will work to eliminate any depictions or glorification of smoking. The series wasn’t particularly known for that, but there has been a handful of cigars and cigarettes throughout, so it looks like those will be tossed in the new installment. The move is in part to conforming with the wants of the esport ELeague for image reasons as well as part of a border effort by Truth Initiative (an anti-tobacco organization) to eliminate the glorification of smoking in mainstream entertainment.
“In the midst of the pervasive reemergence 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,” said Robin Koval, CEO and president of Truth Initiative. “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.”
Gears 5 will release on September 10th for Xbox One and PC, and it will be tobacco-free.