BEIJING — Chinese gamers have mass downvoted a Taiwanese game over a hidden meme of Xi Jinping, reports Spiel Times.

On February 20, Taiwan developer Red Candle Games released its second horror game, 'Devotion' receiving fairly positive reviews. Things quickly went south when players discovered an 'easter egg' that referenced the popular Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh meme disguised in a seemingly unrelated poster within the game.

An avalanche of bad Steam reviews from Chinese netizens came shortly after the discovery. Focus Taiwan reports the game is no longer available on Steam in China.

According to Eurogamer, Chinese players aren't mad about the meme itself but mostly upset about being 'tricked' into playing a game that mocked their leader and their country. According to SushiReese, a user on a gaming forum called ResetEra, there are more hidden political metaphors in the game.

For example, he claims the name of a cult mentioned in the game called 'Lùxīnhuì' translates to "Mainland heart association" which, according to him, "means the association of people that are in favor of PRC."

Red Candle Games has since issued a public apology saying, "We deeply regret and are awfully sorry for the sensitive art material, and that when the incident first came out, we failed to put ourselves into your position."

They also explained that they discovered the hidden message after receiving a report from a player a day after the release. They claim to have quickly changed the artwork but it was too late. According to the statement, Red Candle Games partners have cut ties with them. And that's more than likely because those partners, Indievent and Winking Entertainment, are based in China.