Dustborn Damage Control: CEO "Caught Off Guard" By Backlash

Dustborn Damage Control: Ragnar Tørnquist Isn't An EXTREMEM Anti-White Racist, Just Misunderstood - According to Mainstream Media...

In a recent attempt to deflect from the disaster of Red Thread Games and its controversial (to put it nicely), CEO, Ragnar Tørnquist, an article was published to run full-on damage control and ohhhh boy... Is this definitely... Something...

"Gamer.NO" published an article to do some damage control, titled "Dustborn dev opens up after brutal launch: 'Caught us completely off guard.'"  In it, rather than addressing any of the real issues behind the backlash against Dustborn and its creators, the article instead bends over backward to frame critics as irrational, conveniently as always sidestepping Tørnquist’s documented problematic behavior....

Selective Sympathy for a Troubled Launch

The article paints a sympathetic portrait of Tørnquist, presenting him as a 'victim' (yes, that old thing again...) of baseless conspiracy theories and undue harassment. Right from the start, the tone is set with the line:

“It caught us completely off guard. We were very surprised by the extreme reaction to the launch.”

This statement from Tørnquist conveniently ignores the valid criticism surrounding Dustborn’s divisive content and heavy-handed political agenda. Instead of confronting these concerns, the article is instead intent on dismissing them as a fringe reaction.

Constantly dismissing accusations that the game pushes a “woke agenda,” with Tørnquist referring to them as “wild falsehoods” and claiming - get this - that this antifa simulator is somehow NOT about politics, but “language and relationships between people.”

That made me chuckle, ngl...

He sidesteps the fact that Dustborn’s narrative blatantly incorporates ideological messaging, with a story centered on fighting a fascist regime and the use of pronouns beyond "he" and "she." Yet... the article frames these criticisms as nothing more than reactionary noise, further creating a divide between the developers and gamers.

"Twisting Everything" or Honest Critique?

Tørnquist laments that people have twisted everything they say “with malicious intent,” going so far as to accuse detractors of creating a narrative that Red Thread Games is “corrupt and making propaganda.” This kind of victimization is par for the course when studios get caught in the culture war. But what's missing from this picture is any acknowledgment whatsoever of the actual real reasons gamers are upset.

Gamer.NO chose not to mention highly questionable remarks Tørnquist made in 2015, preserved by the Internet Archive. His now-infamous post from Red Thread’s forums reveals his disturbing thoughts on race and diversity in the industry:

“Our team is predominantly white and male. That's unfortunate.”

This kind of rhetoric exposes a deep-seated discomfort with his own race and gender, a position he tries to rationalize but instead comes across as self-hating and hypocritical. The article goes to great lengths to shift blame, all while ignoring the elephant in the room: the deeply rooted racism of its CEO, and how that negatively impacted the game's design from jump...

Even more damning is his comment just two lines later:

“As white males, we have absolutely nothing against our own gender or ethnicity.”

Which one is it, Ragnar? The contradiction between these two statements shows a man tangled in the doublethink of diversity rhetoric, too absorbed in virtue-signaling to recognize the absurdity of his own words. Yet, all this crucial context is nowhere to be found in Gamer.NO’s damage-control propaganda piece.

Shifting Blame to Gamers

The most egregious part of the Gamer.NO article is how it consistently tries to shift the blame for Dustborn’s failure onto the gaming community itself. The article states:

"We are a tiny studio. That’s why it feels so blown out of proportion when we experience so many attacks and conspiracies. It takes a toll."

Rather than acknowledging that the game’s obvious propoganda being pushed, polarizing content, and poor execution are the real sources of the backlash, the article paints gamers as malicious, organized bullies intent on bringing down this small struggling studio. Similar to the angle Kim Belair, CEO of Sweet Baby Inc. took in her XOXO talk... They pretend to be these tiny companies with struggling employees just looking to get by but the world keeps slapping them down!

"It’s been really tough to deal with this. We’re used to people not liking our games, but we appreciate well-argued reviews, even if they’re negative. The difference here is the massive amount of negative feedback from people who have never played the game and never will; they just jump on the bandwagon of those making videos"

~Ragnar Tørnquist

Yes... sure. They really care what we think. As Dustborn Dev Thea Bergh reminded us so bluntly in her own way:

Tørnquist doubles down on this narrative, accusing critics of creating “a tidal wave of hate,” while never once reflecting on the divisive nature of his own work or his inflammatory public statements.

"It seems like people twist everything we say with malicious intent. They’ve created a narrative that Red Thread is corrupt and making propaganda, but the fact is that we’ve made a game we want to talk about and share with others. It’s not for everyone, and they don’t have to play it."

~Ragnar Tørnquist

It's all so tiring... The same narrative that we’ve seen repeated in the industry: when a game fails, it’s not because of the developers’ missteps or misguided creative decisions—it’s because gamers are toxic.

Taxpayers Caught Footing The Bill...

In addition to the blatant disregard for addressing valid critiques, the article conveniently glosses over the financial support that propped up Dustborn from the start. Red Thread Games received 14 million NOK from the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI) and another 150,000 Euros from EU grants.

Despite these significant government subsidies, Tørnquist and his team have yet to deliver any kind of commercially successful title, relying instead on taxpayer money to fund their propaganda.

Hysterically, the article states:

"One of the rumors circulating about Dustborn is that Red Thread received funding from the U.S. government. That is false."

...as if this statement somehow cleanses them from taking tax dollars from everywhere else lmfao...

This government backing not only keeps the studio afloat... but also raises questions about the ethical use of public funds to create games that push divisive political agendas. Instead of focusing on making a genuinely appealing product that can stand on it's own merits, Tørnquist seems more concerned with pandering to ideologues while dismissing the gamers who actually support the industry.

But don't worry, he'll gladly take your tax dollars instead of your game purchase.

Dustborn Isn’t a Victim, It’s a Symptom

In the end, Gamer.NO has done nothing but play PR mouthpiece for a studio that refuses to face its own beyond obvious failures. Dustborn didn’t flop because of “conspiracy theories” or “hate mobs.” It flopped because it’s a poorly made, ideologically driven "game" (and I use the term 'game' ever so loosely here) created by a developer more interested in checking diversity boxes than crafting something genuinely compelling. And no amount of hand-holding from sympathetic media outlets is going to change that.

Ragnar Tørnquist isn’t just out of touch—he’s part of a growing problem in the gaming industry. When developers like him prioritize political messaging over gameplay, they alienate their audience. Instead of owning up to his mistakes, Tørnquist—and those like him—continue to blame gamers for their own failures... and we aren't having it. But gamers see through the façade, and articles like the one from Gamer.NO only serve to deepen the divide between creators and their audiences.

Be accountable, Ragnar. Stop lying. Your lip service doesn't work here. Gamers aren't toxic. Gamers LOVE fantastic game experience. Gamers REJECT, WHOLEHEARTEDLY - thinly veiled propaganda that pretends to be a "game" but in reality, it's just a pathetic attempt at indoctrination... and we aren't having it.

~Smash