Appearances by gaming companies are usually completely planned. Nevertheless, there are always statements that put publishers and developers in their wrong shoes. We present you seven of the most legendary scandals.
The biggest verbal missteps of video game companies
Publishers are usually not shy about promoting new games, consoles and other products to the public or defending controversial decisions. It sometimes happens that the spokespersons completely wrong in tone, allowing oneself to be carried away by outright lies or revealing a spectacular loss of reality – in the worst case, everything happens at the same time. Here we show you 7 of the biggest scandalous statements that publishers have made in recent years that have attracted negative public attention.
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Gran Turismo 7 has caused one of the biggest scandals of the PS5. Fans have showered the racing game with negative reviews for good reason – after an update gave players less in-game currency for completed races than before, but at the same time increased car pricesgamers were left with the choice between an unacceptable grind or microtransactions to get the better cars in the game.
The shitstorm reached such proportions that even Kazunori Yamauchi, the CEO of Polyphony Digital, spoke out. Although he offered a kind of apology, he also justified the absurd in-game price increase. with an extremely flimsy explanationwhich, unsurprisingly, was not particularly well received by players.
“It is my wish that users in GT7 can enjoy many cars and races even without microtransactions. At the same time, the prices of cars are a relevant element that reflects their value and rarity, so I think it is important that these are linked to prices in the real world.”
The fact that Microsoft is currently having to struggle to get back into the gaming mainstream with the Xbox Series X|S is primarily due to the fact that the company was wrong in almost every respect with the launch of the Xbox One. What was particularly unpopular at the time was the requirement that the consoles had to be constantly connected to the Internet. However, Xbox Vice President at the time, Don Mattrick, brushed the problem aside and arrogantly recommended an alternative to gamers:
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“Fortunately, we have a product for people who don't have access to that kind of connectivity. It's called Xbox 360.”
As a result, gamers actually looked for an alternative to the Xbox One – and switched to the PS4 instead (Source: Engadget)
At first glance, there are several reasons why Call of Duty: Vanguard failed to gain a foothold among gamers. Perhaps it was because the competition was simply better, Maybe it was because the single player campaign was far too shortthe DLC delays or other valid reasons, such as protesting against the shocking working conditions at the publisher.
However, according to Activision's annual report, none of these arguments were watertight. Instead, among other things, the setting of World War II as the culprit – an unusual reason, especially since the historical setting had not necessarily contributed to the failure of many other shooters:
“The game's World War II setting didn't resonate with some of our community and we weren't able to deliver as much innovation as we wanted in the premium game.” (Source: Activision)
EA's financial exploitation of gamers in FIFA Ultimate Team mode is now known beyond the industry's borders. However, the company has in the past repeatedly defended with flowery words. The failed attempt is particularly memorable when Kerry Hopkins (VP of Legal and Government Affairs at EA) described these as “surprise mechanics” in front of the British Parliament – and even afterwards did not want to understand what exactly the problem was. (Source: Polygon)
“We think that the way we've implemented these mechanics – and FIFA is of course our big example, our FIFA Ultimate Team and our player packs – it's actually quite ethical and quite entertaining for players (…).”
2022 was not the best year in Square Enix's history, but will go down in history thanks to disastrous flops like Babylon's Fall and Chocobo GP. However, this should not surprise anyone, after all, the year had already started disastrously – with an embarrassing New Year's speech by President Yosuke Matsuda. In it, he not only praised the widely hated NFT trend, but also expressed his irritation that there are still people who play video games for fun.
“I understand that some people who 'play to have fun', who currently make up the majority of gamers, have expressed their opposition to these new trends, and this is understandable. However, I believe there are a certain number of people whose motivation is 'play to contribute', by which I mean helping to make the game more exciting.”
In addition to Square Enix, Ubisoft has also tried to profit from the senseless and useless NFT trend. The Ubisoft Quartz program debuted in Ghost Recon Breakpoint and was supposed to In-game items such as helmets and trousers become collectibles While the project was crashing into a wall of unimpressed gamers, Nicolas Pouard, Vice President of Ubisoft's Strategic Innovations Lab, and Didier Genevois, Ubisoft's Blockchain Technical Director, gave a remarkable interview in which they condescendingly made things much worse.
“It's really for them. It's for a good cause. But they just don't get it yet.”
Diablo Immortal was introduced to the world at BlizzCon in 2018 and generated loud reactions – but none of them were positive, as the dedicated Diablo community was looking for a full-fledged new game for PC and consoles and instead a mobile game While the mood in the hall was already boiling, the Blizzard officials seemed genuinely surprised at the lack of enthusiasm. Game designer Wyatt Cheng reacted with the immortal, because incredibly thoughtless, words:
“Don’t you have cell phones?”
Despite this scandal, Diablo Immortal has become a money-making machine for Blizzard since its release thanks to its bottomless microtransactions. (Source: Kotaku)