Valve Refund Christian Gamer over Opening Scene in BioShock Infinite

Religious themes are a tricky thing to tackle. Yet, that’s exactly what Irrational Games did with BioShock Infinite. Now, for those who are yet to play the game and want to avoid ALL spoilers, it might be best to avoid the following text.

Breen Malmberg bought the game on Steam, but asked Valve for a refund because of one of the opening sections in the game. Those that have played it will know that to get in to the city of Columbia, you must accept a baptism. Malmberg told Kotaku that this didn’t sit right with him and he stopped playing because of his Christian beliefs:

“As baptism of the Holy spirit is at the center of Christianity – of which I am a devout believer – I am basically being forced to make a choice between committing extreme blasphemy by my actions in choosing to accept this ‘choice’ or forced to quit playing the game before it even really starts. Of course I cannot hold true to my beliefs and also commit this act, so I am therefor[e] forced to not play the game.”

Below, you can see a snippet of Malmberg’s letter to Valve, requesting a refund/Steam credit:

“…I cannot play it because at the very beginning of the game there is a section of the game that is so offensive to my religious beliefs that I cannot proceed with it any further. I did not know this section of the game was there and had no way of knowing it was there before-hand as it was not shown in any trailers, previews, screenshots or other marketing material.”

I too didn’t know that a baptism would be taking place in the opening section, but before I started playing the game, I was fully aware that religion was a prominent theme. Also, isn’t Booker DeWitt getting baptised? I didn’t get wet when the protagonist was being dunked – just like I don’t spin really fast like Sonic, or jump on mushrooms like Mario.

Each to their own, I guess. Malmberg felt offended and got his money back.

BioShock Infinite is available now for Windows PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3