i dont think people really understand the meaning of a smear .
crazy players posting angry comments under a post and asking for the new character to be cancelled =/= to smear campaign by other companies
crazy influencer with 300k followers spreading lies and calling the said game anti national =/= smear campaign by other companies.
It is the result of fostering and bowing to every crazy demand of these angry players .
Its a case of different factions and groups of players having different demands and opinions and the game company listening to the louder ones to shut them up because they messed up real bad .