Bethesda Softworks and Microsoft Face Backlash Over Mockery After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Sep 17, 2025
When news broke on September 10, 2025, that conservative activist Charlie Kirk had been assassinated during a speaking event at Utah Valley University, the nation was shaken. Prosecutors in Utah quickly announced they would seek the death penalty against the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, citing DNA evidence and his own text messages confessing to the crime.
But just days after Kirk’s death, a different storm erupted—this one in the world of gaming. Bethesda Softworks, the Rockville, Maryland–based subsidiary of Microsoft, faced swift and fierce criticism after posting a short clip from their upcoming title Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on X (formerly Twitter).
The nine-second video showed Indiana Jones dismissing “fascists” while petting a cat, with Bethesda captioning the post, “good kitty.” The timing—so soon after Kirk’s assassination, when critics of his conservative and anti-LGBTQ+ views often labeled him a “fascist”—struck many as deliberate mockery of his death.
Bethesda deleted the post within hours, but the damage was done.
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