After its record breaking Open Beta, it wasn't hard to predict the overwhelming popularity of Overwatch, Blizzard's first new IP in the last two decades.
The game is enjoying tremendous success on all platforms, but it seems like that goes well beyond the boundaries of the shooter itself. People are so enthralled by the universe and its characters that they want to see more of them in comics, animated shorts and even...porn. That's right, Overwatch porn is a very popular thing these days as showcased by Pornhub's data: on the day the Open Beta became available, searches went up 817%.
However, there's someone trying to go against Internet's Rule 34 this time. Yesterday Redditor spornm, a creator of Overwatch porn (or NSFW content, if you prefer) via Source Filmmaker, reported that Pornhub took down one of his videos due to a DMCA notice.
He also claimed that entire Tumblr sites are being taken down and posted this example, which seems to indicate that the company responsible for this initiative is Irdeto. Here's a description from its official website:
Irdeto is a world leader in digital platform security, working with pay-media operators, content creators, software application providers and connected device manufacturers to protect valuable digital assets for nearly 50 years. We protect digital platforms and assets across multiple industries, such as media & entertainment, payments, and automotive. Our solutions and services enable our customers to protect their revenue, create new offerings and fight cybercrime.
Irdeto’s software security has been deployed in over 2 billion connected devices, preventing cyberattacks for some of the world’s leading companies. Irdeto has the breadth of knowledge and experience that comes from defeating professional hackers and criminals for almost five decades. Irdeto offers a broad range of services to help content owners, broadcasters and operators protect their investment, rights and brand.
We can surmise that Irdeto wouldn't do this unless it had the approval of Blizzard Entertainment. Then again, Blizzard never seemed to care too much about the NSFW content available on Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo.
Will this Overwatch porn affair become a controversy akin to Tracer's victory pose? Only time will tell, but in the meantime the buzz around Overwatch will just keep growing.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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