The video game industry has built up its own fair share of scandals. Originally, it started off as a mere unbothered section of the entertainment industry. Now, the video game industry is one of the biggest industries with renowned actors involved.
Today, we are going to look at some of the biggest video game scandals ever documented.
Video Game Scandals That Were Huge
Mortal Kombat was responsible for the ESRB
Videogames for the longest time were not a home console thing. Visually, the biggest video games were titles from the arcades. But as time passed, home consoles got bigger and started supporting games that were graphically more demanding.
This age saw the rise of realistic graphics in violent games. This was becoming a concern for homes as these games would be easily available to underage kids.
When the first Mortal Kombat was released, it accelerated the scandals around the depiction of gore in video games. This led to the formation of the video game rating board as we know it today.
Bandai Namco held the patent for loading screen minigames
Video games nowadays are trying to get rid of loading screens, as with new hardware, transitions are becoming smoother. But back in, the hardware was not that powerful, and games took time to load assets. Sometimes the wait time could take up a good deal of minutes.
So to deal with the wait time, some games used to have fun loading screen mini games. But this led to a scandal caused by Bandai Namco.
In 1995, the company filed a patent for loading screen minigames, which sparked a controversy in the gaming community. The patent was heavily criticized and only expired after 2015.
The fall of Konami
Konami was one of the biggest Japanese video game companies once upon a time. They used to stand tall beside developers such as Bandai Namco and Capcom. But a particular scandal around Hideo Kojima made them the most hated company for a while.
This started with the Silent Hills game, which the legendary Hideo Kojima was working on. Fan reception towards the demo for the game was phenomenal. It sparked a new generation of independent horror game developers.
But unfortunately, Konami shut down the project, and it was also rumored that there were internal disputes with Hideo Kojima. This led to one of the most important game directors leaving Konami. All this did was make Konami incur the wrath of video game fans for years.
No Man’s Sky’s controversial release
No Man’s Sky was first revealed at E3 2014 as one of the most ambitious games ever. It was lauded for the scope this game provided in terms of exploration. But its reputation turned to dust as soon as the game got released.
The title was a buggy mess on launch, with multiple promised features being absent. The developer boasted about the game having unique explorable worlds. All of what turned out to be a generated and repetitive mess.
The scandal has simmered over the years, as the developers actually held out and improved the game. Currently, No Man’s Sky is a good game to check out on digital stores.
Sony and Nintendo partnership betrayal
Some of the readers might be too young to know about this obscure scandal. Sony and Nintendo had a huge chance for a collab once, which was proposed by Sony themselves. In a different timeline, we could’ve had a console that played PS games on Nintendo hardware.
The basics of the pitch were that Sony wanted to make a CD add-on to the then-popular SNES system. While things were going smoothly, Nintendo decided to betray Sony and cancel the partnership.
Rumors suggest that Nintendo was afraid that Sony wanted to monopolize the CD-ROM video game market. Sony was pissed at the deal being canceled, which was good in a way. As history would have it, soon enough, we got to see the PlayStation 1, and the rest is history.
The Rise of Microtransactions
Microtransactions have been one of the most controversial topics in video games. But did you know that the scandal dated back to as early 2000s. It gave rise to some of the biggest predatory practices in the video game industry, which have become a norm now.
While there may not be a particular contributor who started this whole mess. It is widely agreed that microtransactions stem from mobile online games. This became its own subgenre over the years, called gacha games.
But the moment it came into global limelight is when lootboxes started becoming a thing. This was thanks to EA games, which got their fair share of eyes frowning upon them in the years to come.
The Game That Covered a Violent War
There have been several games over the years that have depicted wars. Especially games that are based around the World War era are rampant. But most of these depict fictional events around the war setting.
Once upon a time, a developer tried to change this by working on a game that depicted a real-life violent war. The name of the game was ‘Six Days in Fallujah’, set around the Iraq War in Fallujah. A very sensitive topic with countless lives lost.
This scandal led to publisher Konami dropping the game. Six Days in Fallujah received a lot of backlash, but still, it found a new publisher and a developer who remade the game.
Cyberpunk 2077 Launch Was Horrible
We all knew that the No Man’s Sky scandal wouldn’t be the last of botched video game launches. One of the most anticipated video games of the decade, Cyberpunk 2077, had to face some harsh criticisms.
The Polish developer CD Projekt Red is known really well for the Witcher franchise. But underneath the fame, the games are usually called out for a lot of bugs. This all culminated in a harsh reality after the release of Cyberpunk 2077.
Although the developer has turned things around, and right now the game is one of the most celebrated titles. It will be hard to wipe off the sour taste of the launch of Cyberpunk 2077.
Accusations Against Blizzard
Blizzard is one of the biggest video game developers in modern day. They are the owners of the infamous MMO, World of Warcraft, as well as the multiplayer FPS title, Overwatch 2. But they also have quite a reputation for scandals, which is widely common knowledge.
For those who don’t know, Blizzard is a company that has a history of controversies, such as discrimination and sexual harassment. The acquisitions became so big and widespread that even appropriate security and authorities had to get involved.
The news around the company and lawsuits led to a lot of employees quitting their jobs. Blizzard still operates as a normal company as a subsidiary under Microsoft.
The Gamergate Scandal
The Gamergate scandal is easily the top controversy that has plagued the video game industry. Most readers were probably waiting for this one to pop up. Don’t worry, we remembered not to forget about it.
For those who aren’t familiar, Gamergate was a harassment campaign staged by people against video game developers and journalists. It targeted specific people whose opinion a particular crowd didn’t agree with.
The purpose of the campaign was to call out the video game industry for leaning towards inclusivity and progressive themes. The ripples of the campaign are still felt to this date, as developers and journalists are constantly called out on social media.
