Social Warfare in the works for Switch

Sanuk Games is bringing Social Warfare to Switch, the studio announced today. The game is targeting a release for the end of 2024 / early 2025.

Social Warfare lets players be a troll-for-hire on social media. They’ll serve in a battalion and promote loyalty to the Great Kingdom of Eternia while disrupting society in the enemy nation.

Further details can be found in the following overview:

You have been mandated to serve in the Social Warfare Battalion. Endorsing multiple identities, you will shape public opinion through comments on social media. You will promote loyalty in the Great Kingdom of Eternia while disrupting society in its archenemy, the Federation of the Free.

Each mission is a news item where, using a terminal that enables you to take multiple online identities, you select comments/replies that fit your objectives. A mood meter gives you real-time feedback on the public’s reaction.

The game will then switch sides and put you in the Federation of the Free’s Social Intelligence Task Force, where you will fight against what you were promoting.

Sanuk Games’ team is based in Thailand while Yan Marchal, the founder, lives in France. Marchal was deported and banned from Thailand after living there 18 years, as his social media musings about the country’s political and social matters got unexpectedly popular, which was not to the taste of the Thai ministry of interior.

This game is largely his brainchild, taking his experience and observations to a more universal context. It takes place in a fictional world with two antagonist nations and explores how each nation’s intelligence agency subverts the use of social media to influence public opinion both domestically and in the other nation. It covers such themes as malicious use of hate speech and incitement of conflicts for political gain.

A trailer for Social Warfare is attached below.

Official Trailer

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