House House Rules Out Big Walk on Xbox, Cites BDS Boycott
"This decision means that some people will miss out on playing Big Walk with their friends."
House House, the Melbourne studio behind Untitled Goose Game, will not release Big Walk on Xbox. In a statement on the game's site, the studio said the decision follows the Palestinian-led BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement's call to boycott Microsoft, and the movement's designation of Microsoft Games and Xbox as a "priority boycott target." Watch the release date trailer below.
An excerpt from the Big Walk release date trailer, shown without sound. Watch the full trailer on Steam.
Big Walk is a cooperative online game in which a group of friends wanders a large open world and talks to each other. The Steam page calls it "a cooperative online walker-talker." The statement acknowledges the cost: "This decision means that some people will miss out on playing Big Walk with their friends, and we understand the disappointment we’re causing." House House says it would bring the game to Xbox once Microsoft and Xbox are no longer BDS boycott targets.
The BDS movement answered on Oct. 16 with an Instagram post saluting the studio and asking players, developers and games journalists to sign its No Games for Genocide pledge and boycott Xbox. Game Informer was among the outlets that reported the statement.
Big Walk came out Aug. 4 on PC, Mac, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, published by Panic.
House House formed out of Melbourne's game-jam scene and was incorporated in 2014. The studio is four people: Nico Disseldorp, Jake Strasser, Stuart Gillespie-Cook and Michael McMaster. Its first game, Push Me Pull You, came out in 2016. Untitled Goose Game followed in 2019 and won Game of the Year at both the D.I.C.E. Awards and the Game Developers Choice Awards.
For more reading, see Killscreen's 2014 profile of the studio, the BDS movement's case against Microsoft and the People Make Games explainer House House recommends.
Big Walk screenshots. Images courtesy House House and Panic.
Killscreen follows the studios at the edges of games, including the choices they make about where their work goes. Get Radar free in your inbox twice a week.
