FunPlus's 'Codename: Realm' Allegedly Goes All-In on Female Audience — But Deletes Bilibili Post While Keeping Weibo, Players Ask: Is This a Statement or a Dodge?

Another game studio has dropped the mask. FunPlus's upcoming title 'Codename: Realm' (代号界) appears to have publicly positioned itself as a female-oriented game, igniting a heated community debate about whether gacha games should openly 'segregate by gender' — a topic Chinese gamers colloquially call '分厕' (literally 'separate bathrooms').

According to the original poster, as of 9 PM the previous night, Codename: Realm's official Bilibili post had been deleted, but the Weibo post remained untouched. This half-measure is raising eyebrows: if you're proud of your stance, why delete it on one platform? The OP made their own position crystal clear: they support 'gender segregation' in games.

A commenter demanded to know what exactly was deleted, posting a screenshot as evidence that the game's official account did make some kind of statement about its target audience.

Many players saw it coming from a mile away. One comment read: 'One look at that game's avatar and you can tell it's targeting women.' Another added: 'The avatar and marketing are obviously female-oriented — but hey, at least they're being upfront about it.'

Then the deeper lore dropped. A player revealed that Codename: Realm is a FunPlus project: 'They used to have tons of project teams, but last year they went on a massive cancellation spree. Now they're down to just two projects — this one and Dragon Nest (归龙潮).' Someone immediately fired back with the real question: 'Wait, they axed everything else and kept only TWO projects, both female-oriented? Yikes.'

This revelation sparked the usual stereotype debate about the 'Shanghai circle' (沪圈) — a term players use to describe the cluster of Shanghai-based studios often associated with female-oriented and 'general audience' games. Someone joked: 'Someone edit this meme to make it about Shanghai game studios.'

But the dominant sentiment in the comments was actually supportive. A top-voted comment read: 'Good. Being upfront about your audience is infinitely better than those BS studios that won't commit.' Another echoed: 'Whether it's male-oriented, female-oriented, or general — as long as you say it clearly and stick to it, I'm behind you.'

The 'bathroom segregation' metaphor ran through the entire thread. One commenter delivered a particularly spicy take: 'Men go to the men's room, women go to the women's room — it's better than someone sneaking into the wrong bathroom, planting a flag, and screaming "this is MY house now, everyone else GTFO."' This resonated hard, with a follow-up adding: 'When women invade the men's room, men aren't even allowed in anymore — fiction mireting reality right there.'

Not everyone was celebrating, though. One voice of concern stood out: 'You guys keep farming money from the female player base day after day — won't that well eventually run dry?' Another player offered a more strategic read: 'This is also squeezing out the 'mixed bathroom' (混厕) games — games that pretend to serve everyone but really commit to nobody. I'm for it.'

Then came the key contradiction. A player called out the elephant in the room: 'Deleting the Bilibili post — that counts as a clear statement?' Someone shot back: 'The Weibo post is still up, but the Bilibili one was taken down. You figure it out.' The implication being that Bilibili and Weibo have very different demographics, and selectively deleting content on one platform might itself be a calculated move.

The consensus forming in the comments is pretty clear: players don't care whether your game targets men, women, or everyone. What they can't stand is bait-and-switch — advertising as 'general audience' when you're obviously catering to one demographic, just to squeeze out more sales. As one commenter summed it up: 'Just be honest and we'll support you. Let different games coexist for different tastes.' As for Codename: Realm — whether deleting the Bilibili post was guilty conscience or targeted PR, only FunPlus knows for sure.