During the key event of the Summer Game Fest livestream last week, Proulx appeared to promote his game sporting a black hat with the slogan, “Make FPS Great Again” — an apparent play on Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan. Instead of focusing on the game, the Splitgate 2 community, along with journalists and gamers, quickly criticized the hat, calling it a gross and tone-deaf message. As more inquiries poured in from the Splitgate 2 community, Proulx initially stood his ground on social media, insisting he wouldn’t apologize and asserted that the hat wasn’t a political statement, urging people to take it at face value.

However, today marks a change in his approach. He posted on X with the straightforward caption, “No excuses, I’m sorry,” along with a nearly three-minute video where he elaborated on the decision to wear the hat and the rationale behind it.

“We needed something to grab attention, and the honest truth is, we tried to think of something, and this is what we came up with,” Proulx said.

He acknowledged that he was aware the hat would raise controversy. His apology was not for the hat itself, but the discussion surrounding the hat within the Splitgate 2 community. Proulx claimed he did not want the division he himself sowed. “The reason I’m sorry is because of what this has done to the community,” he said.

He continued: “We knew there would be some level of controversy, but we really saw this as a meme that was kind of stating our truth.” As Proulx was making his statement, a few miles away in Los Angeles’ fashion district where the Summer Game Fest Play Days campus resides, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was conducting raids snatching up people just going about their lives; raids that led to city-wide clashes between people protecting their neighbors and defenders of a cruel regime.

But it is not just a hat. Aping a political statement that has been used to enact state violence isn’t “a meme,” it is a continuation of that violence. I think of the people in attendance at the show and those who work at the YouTube Theater who are immigrants or have immigrant family members. I think of the bartender at the City Market Social House, the venue where SGF holds its Play Days event, who told me about the protocol they have in case ICE shows up: how people can hide in a room in the basement and hand out cards so they don’t have to speak to ICE and potentially implicate themself.

Proulx’s statement, no matter its form, isn’t just in bad taste. It is a stark reminder to those people that their lives and families are at risk. And saying ‘I’m sorry, it was just a meme,’ isn’t enough.