The game, which described itself as a “Popular game hunting on [sic] gays! Play and do not be gay!” was removed by Google on Monday morning following complaints from social media users.
However, it had been available since 5 November with an ‘Everyone’ suitability rating. Furthermore, before its removal, the title mustered a four-star rating from 352 reviews, accumulating over 10,000 downloads.
The app tasked players with hunting naked gay men using a shotgun in order to prevent a suggested rape. On the Google Play platform apps are not reviewed, instead with developers offered “Content Guidelines”.
Ass Hunter was flagged and removed because it was in breach of a rule stating: “We don't allow content advocating against groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity.”
This is the latest slip-up from the store derived from allowing developers to self-publish on the site.
In August there was similar controversy surrounding the release of a game called Bomb Gaza which, as the title suggests, gave users the chance to bomb civilian buildings in the troubled region.