Shift Up subtly addresses Goddess of Victory: Nikke “small genitals” hand gesture backlash in recent developer commentary video

On Oct. 25, 2025, Shift Up released a third-anniversary developer commentary for Goddess of Victory: Nikke, with a segment dedicated to stating that it will not tolerate “anyone intentionally inserting hate speech into the game” and has formed a quality management department to prevent it.

This most likely refers to an illustration that was posted by the developers back then, where some people took offense due to the characters apparently making a controversial hand gesture in South Korea.

On Aug. 2, 2025, the developers celebrated the game’s 1000-day anniversary and uploaded an illustration where one of the characters seemingly shows a hand gesture called the “crab hand” that was associated with specific radical feminist groups in South Korea.

The hand gesture has been controversial because it has been used by the aforementioned groups to insult Korean men by implying that they have small genitals. This ties into the ongoing gender conflict in South Korea, where radical feminists and radical anti-feminists have become highly sensitive to the gesture.

Apple has even changed its promotional materials in an effort to avoid public backlash from its South Korean customers. This is very evident in its iPhone Air YouTube thumbnail, where the hand pinching the phone was removed specifically in its advertisement video meant for South Korea.

The aforementioned anniversary illustration was quickly taken down, and the hands were changed so as not to be a vague reference to the controversial gesture. The studio also issued an apology, mentioning that the developers were not able to take a closer look at the illustrations before releasing them.