Spanish gamers outraged by Aztec game in which players kill conquistadors

Ecumene Aztec video game scheduled for release in 2025

In the trailer for the upcoming Ecumene Aztec video game, a naked warrior stabs a Spanish conquistador in the back and pulls out his blade in a stream of blood.

This scene and other scenes from the game, which is scheduled for release in 2025, have sparked fury among the Spanish gaming community, who object to the portrayal of the conquistadors as genocidal invaders and the Aztecs as heroes.

Players take on the role brave Aztecs battling 16th-century conquests and can get their tattooed avatar to kill mail-clad Spaniards in a variety of innovative ways, from clubs to strangleholds, poison darts and spiked traps.

The developers said they were receiving death threats from players as part of a wider culture war raging over the takeover of Mexico by Spanish forces over five centuries ago, an event that paved the way for Spanish control of large parts of the Americas in the following centuries.

The game was announced last week in a trailer that shows the 1521 battle for the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, in present-day Mexico City, from the point of view of local warriors.

In the game, players can have their tattooed avatar kill Spaniards in a variety of innovative ways. from far-right groups.”

The right-wing group is suspected of creating a website on behalf of Giantscraft that features a quote from conquistador Hernán Cortés and the Burgundian Cross, a symbol of the Spanish monarchy linked to far-right defenders of the Spanish Christian «crusade» in America. .

The website hosted an Instagram post criticizing a game that portrays the Battle of Tenochtitlan as a battle in which white European invaders kill innocent natives.

Spanish gaming community objects to depiction of conquistadors as genocidal invaders

«Contrary to what history tells us, this game depicts Spaniards as ruthless killers, marauders, slave traders and genocides, according to the unreliable «black legend». ’,” says one of the comments on Instagram.

Giantscraft has responded to criticism by promising changes to the final game that will allow players to select conquistadors and «combat the sacrificial priest caste».

The statement also says the game will be redesigned to be more historical, and that players will be able to seek allies among their own people and the other side, reflecting the complex network of alliances the conquistadors forged with some of the indigenous peoples.

Starting on the coast of Tabasco, and with the support of some indigenous groups who threw in their lot with the invaders, Cortés led several hundred Spanish soldiers east to victory at Tenochtitlan in 1521.

Giantscraft Says The Game Will Be Reworked To Be More Historical

The Aztec Empire Was Destroyed And The Indigenous People Converted To Catholicism. . Historians have calculated that due to devastating wars, famine and disease, about 80 percent of the native inhabitants of Mesoamerica were destroyed by the end of the 16th century.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, leftist Mexican president, called on Spain to formally apologize for the «massacre and oppression» of the conquistadors.

But many in Spain refute the notion that the conquest of Mexico and other parts of the Americas was an exploitative exercise of colonialism, noting that the natives became subjects of the Spanish crown.

King Felipe of Spain last year defended what he described as his country's role in establishing «universities, schools, hospitals and printing houses» in America, as well as the Spanish language and the Christian faith.