Blizzard attempts to crack down on Overwatch-related porn

Rule 34 of the Internet states: "If it exists, there is porn of it." From World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings to X-men and Pokemon, porn parodies exist for almost anything you can think of, and Blizzard's recently released team-based multiplayer shooter Overwatch is certainly no exception. When the game's public beta went live on 5 May, Pornhub reported that searches for Overwatch porn skyrocketed by a whopping 817%.

Blizzard, however, isn't too happy about it. The company is reportedly attempting to crack down on the fetish, issuing take-down notices to remove NSFW Overwatch content from different services.

Reddit user spornm, who used Valve's Source Filmmaker to rip assets from the game and create the X-rated videos, said he received messages from Pornhub saying the videos were removed due to infringement of copyright.

"Its the same as Blizzard taking down that tracer art work you drew in class. Its them pick and choosing which content they want people to see," spornm wrote. "If you guys are fine with this then, eh we will go back to making Asari do all sorts of things. But if you enjoy this type of content or any other Blizzard related content then people need to tell Blizzard to stop policing the web; picking and choosing which content they want people to see."

Other creators have also reported receiving similar takedown messages from Irdeto, a security firm whose services "protect digital platforms and assets across multiple industries, such as media and entertainment, payments, and automotive".

PCGamesN reports that the company could have been hired by Blizzard to combat IP theft and scrub the internet of Overwatch pornographic content that uses assets straight from the game itself. IBTimes UK has reached out to Blizzard for comment.

Blizzard was also at the receiving end of fan backlash in the weeks leading up to the public beta for over-sexualising one of its more popular characters, Tracer, in a controversial victory pose. As a result, Blizzard apologised for it and modified the pose. Incidentally, Pornhub noted that Tracer was its most popular Overwatch-related searches.

South Korea was the No 1 country searching for Overwatch on Pornhub, followed by Belarus and Russia.

"We found other search increases around March 29th and again on April 5th," reads Pornhub's report."In the weeks leading up to the public beta, media reported that some character poses in the game were 'overly sexualised.' Blizzard responded by making modifications and released new poses the following week. The news reports undoubtedly caused people to search for Overwatch and it's characters."

Creating porn using popular video game characters, however, is no new trend.

Other popular video-game related searches on Pornhub include Minecraft, Halo, Clash of Clans, Call of Duty and Fallout 4.

Although the chances of actually flushing out all Overwatch-related porn videos are pretty slim, Blizzard does have good reason to clamp down on stolen Overwatch character content used to create porn videos, given the company's clear guidelines on fan videos.

One of them states: "To maintain and protect the image of our games, Blizzard also requires that Productions maintain the "T" rating that has been given to its products by the ESRB, and similar ratings received from other ratings boards around the world, and that these standards are taken into account during the creation of your Production."

Released on 24 May, Overwatch is out now for PS4, Xbox One and PC.