Executive Meddling/Video Games: Difference between revisions

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* An ''extremely'' obscure pachinko game for the Famicom has five percent of the entire ROM file dedicated to an angry rant by one of the programmers, that, among other things, calls his boss an idiot, calls other bosses retards, complaining about the strange noises of the pachinko machines, selling a ROM with a phone number to call for interested parties. The full thing is available [http://wiki.rustedlogic.net/Pachi_Com_%28Famicom%29 here].
* An ''extremely'' obscure pachinko game for the Famicom has five percent of the entire ROM file dedicated to an angry rant by one of the programmers, that, among other things, calls his boss an idiot, calls other bosses retards, complaining about the strange noises of the pachinko machines, selling a ROM with a phone number to call for interested parties. The full thing is available [http://wiki.rustedlogic.net/Pachi_Com_%28Famicom%29 here].
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic X-Treme]]'' is notorious for its [[Executive Meddling]]. First, the main game and boss levels were broken up and given to two different teams, which ended up building them into essentially two completely different games. Then, the team making the boss levels were shown a demo of the then-in production ''[[NiGHTS Into Dreams]]'' game, further inspiring the team to deviate the levels from the main game and causing ''Nights'' creator Yuji Naka to threaten to leave on grounds of plagiarism. Then, when Sega of Japan came over to check up on progress, they loved the engine for the boss levels so much, they demanded that the entire game be made with it, despite the fact that the team was dangerously close to deadline and short on men due to arguments about the game's direction. It finally took the game's director coming down with pneumonia before the plug was finally pulled.
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic X-Treme]]'' is notorious for its [[Executive Meddling]]. First, the main game and boss levels were broken up and given to two different teams, which ended up building them into essentially two completely different games. Then, the team making the boss levels were shown a demo of the then-in production ''[[NiGHTS Into Dreams]]'' game, further inspiring the team to deviate the levels from the main game and causing ''Nights'' creator Yuji Naka to threaten to leave on grounds of plagiarism. Then, when Sega of Japan came over to check up on progress, they loved the engine for the boss levels so much, they demanded that the entire game be made with it, despite the fact that the team was dangerously close to deadline and short on men due to arguments about the game's direction. It finally took the game's director coming down with pneumonia before the plug was finally pulled.
** Oh, let's not forget how Sega replaced the entire voice cast of the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' games with their ''[[Sonic X]]'' counterparts... ''without telling the original cast''. Reportedly, Sonic's original voice actor Ryan Drummond actually had to call Sega to find out when he needed to be back in for recording for ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'' before he found out about the switch.
** Oh, let's not forget how Sega replaced the entire voice cast of the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' games with their ''[[Sonic X]]'' counterparts... ''without telling the original cast''. Reportedly, Sonic's original voice actor Ryan Drummond actually had to call Sega to find out when he needed to be back in for recording for ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'' before he found out about the switch.
*** It was a bit more awkward for Shadow's original voice actor, David Humphrey, who actually flew to LA with the intention of recording the game, only to discover he had been replaced when he showed up at the studio!
*** It was a bit more awkward for Shadow's original voice actor, David Humphrey, who actually flew to LA with the intention of recording the game, only to discover he had been replaced when he showed up at the studio!
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** Hell, the anti-2D policy is still in slight effect to this day. Not as bad as it was in the 90s, but Sony will still implement it time to time. Rumor has it that this is one of the reasons the recent Xbox Live ports of [[Fatal Fury|Garou: Mark of the Wolves]], ''[[The King of Fighters]] '98UM'', ''2K2UM'' and SNK's other 2D fighters never made it to the [[PlayStation 3]].
** Hell, the anti-2D policy is still in slight effect to this day. Not as bad as it was in the 90s, but Sony will still implement it time to time. Rumor has it that this is one of the reasons the recent Xbox Live ports of [[Fatal Fury|Garou: Mark of the Wolves]], ''[[The King of Fighters]] '98UM'', ''2K2UM'' and SNK's other 2D fighters never made it to the [[PlayStation 3]].
*** ''[[Little Big Planet]]'' is exempt from this, being a 3D sidescroller. Not all Sidescrollers are 2D.
*** ''[[Little Big Planet]]'' is exempt from this, being a 3D sidescroller. Not all Sidescrollers are 2D.
**** It's actually more of a 2.5D sidescroller.
**** It's actually more of a 2.5D sidescroller.
* In the original ''[[Rogue Squadron]]'', this trope is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by the [[Cheat Code]] "BLAMEUS," which gives you a pic of the game's producers.
* In the original ''[[Rogue Squadron]]'', this trope is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by the [[Cheat Code]] "BLAMEUS," which gives you a pic of the game's producers.
* Developers for ''[[The Sims]] 2'' complained about how executives pressured the team to use more particle effects in the game so they could ''put that as a bullet point on the box''. So, we got people walking around with green smoke coming out of their arms when low on hygiene, green smoke coming out of food that had gone bad, and so forth. Unrealistic it may be, it at least came in handy as a visual aid.
* Developers for ''[[The Sims]] 2'' complained about how executives pressured the team to use more particle effects in the game so they could ''put that as a bullet point on the box''. So, we got people walking around with green smoke coming out of their arms when low on hygiene, green smoke coming out of food that had gone bad, and so forth. Unrealistic it may be, it at least came in handy as a visual aid.
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* Whether it was a more executive decision or not is unknown, but apparently the 'Meat Flag' muliplayer game mode for ''[[Gears of War]] 2'' by [[Epic Games]] was renamed 'Submission' at the behest of the PR team at Microsoft.
* Whether it was a more executive decision or not is unknown, but apparently the 'Meat Flag' muliplayer game mode for ''[[Gears of War]] 2'' by [[Epic Games]] was renamed 'Submission' at the behest of the PR team at Microsoft.
* The notorious ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' and ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' games on the Phillips CD-i system were a result of several years' worth of Executive Meddling. During the early nineties, just as Sega was coming out with the Sega CD/Mega CD, Nintendo decided to develop [[SNESCDROM|a CD-based add-on of their own for the Super Nintendo]] with Sony, one that would be able to play new, 32-bit CD-based games in addition to the original SNES library. A while into their co-operation, however, Nintendo realized that letting just anyone develop games for the CD add-on meant that Nintendo would lose their absolute control over the games released on their systems, so they decided to give Sony the cold shoulder and, completely by surprise, announced that they were going to work with Phillips on the CD add-on from there on. Nintendo's CD add-on never saw the light of day, and to compensate for their hard work, they gave Phillips the right to publish games based on four or five Nintendo characters. The worst part for Nintendo? Sony continued the project by themselves, creating the Sony [[PlayStation]], [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|which pushed Nintendo into a slump]] from which they didn't completely recover until the [[Wii]].
* The notorious ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' and ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' games on the Phillips CD-i system were a result of several years' worth of Executive Meddling. During the early nineties, just as Sega was coming out with the Sega CD/Mega CD, Nintendo decided to develop [[SNESCDROM|a CD-based add-on of their own for the Super Nintendo]] with Sony, one that would be able to play new, 32-bit CD-based games in addition to the original SNES library. A while into their co-operation, however, Nintendo realized that letting just anyone develop games for the CD add-on meant that Nintendo would lose their absolute control over the games released on their systems, so they decided to give Sony the cold shoulder and, completely by surprise, announced that they were going to work with Phillips on the CD add-on from there on. Nintendo's CD add-on never saw the light of day, and to compensate for their hard work, they gave Phillips the right to publish games based on four or five Nintendo characters. The worst part for Nintendo? Sony continued the project by themselves, creating the Sony [[PlayStation]], [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|which pushed Nintendo into a slump]] from which they didn't completely recover until the [[Wii]].
** Both this specific event and [[Executive Meddling]] in general have everything to do with [[Square]]'s falling out with Nintendo, as well. Square was a ''huge'' supporter of the CD peripheral, had plans to use it, and loudly criticized Nintendo deciding to drop the project. Nintendo punished Square for its vocal criticism by refusing to allow expanded memory carts from some of their ambitious projects late in the SFC's life cycle, like ''[[Bahamut Lagoon]]'' or ''[[Rudra no Hihou]].'' Further, the failure of the Sega CD and the inability of their own CD add-on to ever get off the ground convinced Nintendo that disc-based game systems were a dead end, leading to the cartridge-based N64 -- Square quickly realized the N64 and its cartridges weren't capable of running the games they wanted to make and went over to developing for Sony systems.
** Both this specific event and [[Executive Meddling]] in general have everything to do with [[Square]]'s falling out with Nintendo, as well. Square was a ''huge'' supporter of the CD peripheral, had plans to use it, and loudly criticized Nintendo deciding to drop the project. Nintendo punished Square for its vocal criticism by refusing to allow expanded memory carts from some of their ambitious projects late in the SFC's life cycle, like ''[[Bahamut Lagoon]]'' or ''[[Rudra no Hihou]].'' Further, the failure of the Sega CD and the inability of their own CD add-on to ever get off the ground convinced Nintendo that disc-based game systems were a dead end, leading to the cartridge-based N64 -- Square quickly realized the N64 and its cartridges weren't capable of running the games they wanted to make and went over to developing for Sony systems.
* ''[[Command and Conquer|Tiberium]]'' was to be the second FPS set in the C&C universe. It had a solid, original concept at its heart: you play as a GDI Forward Battle Commander, actively leading your AI-controlled troops from the front lines. It had a terrific art style; everything in the game world had a realistic, hard sci-fi look to it. It had the fans of the series salivating with anticipation... and then was suddenly canceled with no reasoning cited other than "failing to meet quality standards." Shortly after the game's cancellation, several disillusioned developers of the game [http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20462 began posting on Gamasutra], and from these testimonies comes a rather depressing tale. It seems that the project was doomed by its leadership, or lack thereof. According to the posters at Gamasutra, many of the lead producers (and there were apparently several) were less experienced than many of their subordinates and were only recently promoted to their positions. There was much jockeying for power, with each producer trying to outdo or replace the work done by their predecessors (including gutting the FPS/RTS mechanic at its core). At least one poster claims these managers were actively trying to sabotage the project and thus save face rather than have a broken game released with their names attached. Even if only half of it is true, it's a fact that this game was in development for a good 5 years, getting nowhere, and no one seemed to want to save it.
* ''[[Command & Conquer|Tiberium]]'' was to be the second FPS set in the C&C universe. It had a solid, original concept at its heart: you play as a GDI Forward Battle Commander, actively leading your AI-controlled troops from the front lines. It had a terrific art style; everything in the game world had a realistic, hard sci-fi look to it. It had the fans of the series salivating with anticipation... and then was suddenly canceled with no reasoning cited other than "failing to meet quality standards." Shortly after the game's cancellation, several disillusioned developers of the game [http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20462 began posting on Gamasutra], and from these testimonies comes a rather depressing tale. It seems that the project was doomed by its leadership, or lack thereof. According to the posters at Gamasutra, many of the lead producers (and there were apparently several) were less experienced than many of their subordinates and were only recently promoted to their positions. There was much jockeying for power, with each producer trying to outdo or replace the work done by their predecessors (including gutting the FPS/RTS mechanic at its core). At least one poster claims these managers were actively trying to sabotage the project and thus save face rather than have a broken game released with their names attached. Even if only half of it is true, it's a fact that this game was in development for a good 5 years, getting nowhere, and no one seemed to want to save it.
** From the same franchise, ''Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight'' was a huge victim of such meddling. The game originally started out as a multiplayer-only project, meant for quick, direct matches in cybercafes and for tournaments. It would be set in the tiberium universe, but the mechanics were revamped for its short-match multiplayer focus, and to be fair, they were good mechanics for the kind of gameplay they were going for. However, executives wanted them to shift the product and expand it into a full, story-integrated sequel to ''Tiberium Wars''. Its progression system was ill-balanced for campaign play, and its mechanics did not give players the kind of single-player mission experience consistant with earlier titles in the series. This ended up giving it a Metacritic score of 64, which under the [[Four Point Scale]] is one of the lowest a major game can expect to get. The average user review was ''[[Up to Eleven|several times worse]]'' than that.
** From the same franchise, ''Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight'' was a huge victim of such meddling. The game originally started out as a multiplayer-only project, meant for quick, direct matches in cybercafes and for tournaments. It would be set in the tiberium universe, but the mechanics were revamped for its short-match multiplayer focus, and to be fair, they were good mechanics for the kind of gameplay they were going for. However, executives wanted them to shift the product and expand it into a full, story-integrated sequel to ''Tiberium Wars''. Its progression system was ill-balanced for campaign play, and its mechanics did not give players the kind of single-player mission experience consistant with earlier titles in the series. This ended up giving it a Metacritic score of 64, which under the [[Four Point Scale]] is one of the lowest a major game can expect to get. The average user review was ''[[Up to Eleven|several times worse]]'' than that.
* For its American release, the European game ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)]]'' had its name changed to ''Indigo Prophecy'' to avoid [[Viewers are Morons|confusion]] with the [[Michael Moore]] film ''Fahrenheit 911'', and to avoid the dreaded "Adults Only" rating, they excised the game's two sex scenes. Apparently, the cinematic, subdued sex is adults-only material, but opening the game with the main character hiding his tracks after unwittingly committing murder is just [[Rated "M" for Money]]!
* For its American release, the European game ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)]]'' had its name changed to ''Indigo Prophecy'' to avoid [[Viewers are Morons|confusion]] with the [[Michael Moore]] film ''Fahrenheit 911'', and to avoid the dreaded "Adults Only" rating, they excised the game's two sex scenes. Apparently, the cinematic, subdued sex is adults-only material, but opening the game with the main character hiding his tracks after unwittingly committing murder is just [[Rated "M" for Money]]!
** Interestingly, the game's director has said on occasion that he actually likes ''Indigo Prophecy'' better as a title, and wishes every region carried it (not to mention the fact that the game continuously uses ''centigrade'' to signify temperature). As for the sex scenes compared to the violence...well that's a case of [[Values Dissonance]].
** Interestingly, the game's director has said on occasion that he actually likes ''Indigo Prophecy'' better as a title, and wishes every region carried it (not to mention the fact that the game continuously uses ''centigrade'' to signify temperature). As for the sex scenes compared to the violence...well that's a case of [[Values Dissonance]].
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* ''[[Xenosaga]]'' had heavy meddling done to the series. Of note: ''Xenosaga II'' where Ziggy's back story was removed and made into a cell phone game that was only available in Japan. Not to mention the strange decision on Namco/Bandai of America's part to remove blood in ''Xenosaga III'' despite the previous games having had blood with the same T rating.
* ''[[Xenosaga]]'' had heavy meddling done to the series. Of note: ''Xenosaga II'' where Ziggy's back story was removed and made into a cell phone game that was only available in Japan. Not to mention the strange decision on Namco/Bandai of America's part to remove blood in ''Xenosaga III'' despite the previous games having had blood with the same T rating.
* As many gamers and reviewers have noted, the title of ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' has little to do with the actual game (in which good and evil are pretty obviously defined, and there's nary a [[Nietzsche Wannabe|dying god or abyss gazing also]] in sight). The title, however, was a result of meddling. The game was originally announced as "''Project BG&E''", with the "BG&E" standing for "''Between'' Good and Evil". The title was originally meant to be a reference to the way a [[First-Person Snapshooter|photograph]] can fall anywhere on the sliding scale of [[Character Alignment|Character Alignments]]. The higher-ups didn't like it, and the Nietchze reference was shoehorned in.
* As many gamers and reviewers have noted, the title of ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' has little to do with the actual game (in which good and evil are pretty obviously defined, and there's nary a [[Nietzsche Wannabe|dying god or abyss gazing also]] in sight). The title, however, was a result of meddling. The game was originally announced as "''Project BG&E''", with the "BG&E" standing for "''Between'' Good and Evil". The title was originally meant to be a reference to the way a [[First-Person Snapshooter|photograph]] can fall anywhere on the sliding scale of [[Character Alignment|Character Alignments]]. The higher-ups didn't like it, and the Nietchze reference was shoehorned in.
** The actual gameplay got meddled, too. The game was trapped in a mild [[Development Hell]], and was originally intended to be ''much'' longer. It was intended to stretch to cover other planets, instead of the one (and the moon) in the final game. Concerns over development time cut the whole game short, so that [[Screwed by the Network|the brand-new IP that no one knew how to handle could be released right alongside the highly-anticipated return of the]] ''[[Prince of Persia]]'' series.
** The actual gameplay got meddled, too. The game was trapped in a mild [[Development Hell]], and was originally intended to be ''much'' longer. It was intended to stretch to cover other planets, instead of the one (and the moon) in the final game. Concerns over development time cut the whole game short, so that [[Screwed by the Network|the brand-new IP that no one knew how to handle could be released right alongside the highly-anticipated return of the]] ''[[Prince of Persia]]'' series.
* ''[[Perfect Dark|Perfect Dark Zero]]'' started out on the [[Game Cube]], then [[Microsoft]] bought [[Rare|Rareware]] from [[Nintendo]] in 2002 so they had to restart the development of the game for the [[Xbox]]. When they were almost done, Microsoft asked them to transfer Development to the [[Xbox 360]], and they wanted it to be a launch title. So, Rare was rushed while they were making the game, and they had to have 700,000 discs ready before the Microsoft certification was complete, to meet the Xbox 360 launch date. Rare also did not have the full Development Kits for the 360, and the one they had was only capable of around 1/3rd of the 360's graphical capabilities. Overall, because of all of this it took Rare 5 years to make this game.
* ''[[Perfect Dark|Perfect Dark Zero]]'' started out on the [[Game Cube]], then [[Microsoft]] bought [[Rare|Rareware]] from [[Nintendo]] in 2002 so they had to restart the development of the game for the [[Xbox]]. When they were almost done, Microsoft asked them to transfer Development to the [[Xbox 360]], and they wanted it to be a launch title. So, Rare was rushed while they were making the game, and they had to have 700,000 discs ready before the Microsoft certification was complete, to meet the Xbox 360 launch date. Rare also did not have the full Development Kits for the 360, and the one they had was only capable of around 1/3rd of the 360's graphical capabilities. Overall, because of all of this it took Rare 5 years to make this game.
* ''[[DJMAX]]'' games from ''DJMAX Portable Black Square'' onwards (save for ''DJMAX Technika'') have an "auto-correct" feature that will hit the correct note for you if you hit the wrong button. It's speculated that Pentavision implemented this feature to avoid legal issues with [[Beatmania|Konami]].
* ''[[DJMAX]]'' games from ''DJMAX Portable Black Square'' onwards (save for ''DJMAX Technika'') have an "auto-correct" feature that will hit the correct note for you if you hit the wrong button. It's speculated that Pentavision implemented this feature to avoid legal issues with [[Beatmania|Konami]].
* At some point after releasing ''[[Tales of Eternia]]'', Namco (and after the merge, Bandai Namco) decided not to localize any other 2D Tales game. For that reason, many great [[Tales (series)]] games never got to America (except for ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'' due to special reasons), such as ''[[Tales of Destiny]] 2'', ''[[Tales of Rebirth]]'', and ''[[Tales of Hearts]]''. ''[[Tales of Eternia]]'' even got a PSP port in 2005, but despite the fact that said port was released in Europe no American version is in sight.
* At some point after releasing ''[[Tales of Eternia]]'', Namco (and after the merge, Bandai Namco) decided not to localize any other 2D Tales game. For that reason, many great [[Tales (series)]] games never got to America (except for ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'' due to special reasons), such as ''[[Tales of Destiny]] 2'', ''[[Tales of Rebirth]]'', and ''[[Tales of Hearts]]''. ''[[Tales of Eternia]]'' even got a PSP port in 2005, but despite the fact that said port was released in Europe no American version is in sight.
** Of course Europe has never seen 80% of ''Tales'' games, all they have had is ''Tales of Phantasia'' on the GBA (very slow compared to the [[PS 1]]), ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'', its sequel, ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World|Dawn of the New World]]'' and ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]''. Those "cameo" battles must leave a lot of people thinking "What the hell are they cameoing from?".
** Of course Europe has never seen 80% of ''Tales'' games, all they have had is ''Tales of Phantasia'' on the GBA (very slow compared to the [[PS 1]]), ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'', its sequel, ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World|Dawn of the New World]]'' and ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]''. Those "cameo" battles must leave a lot of people thinking "What the hell are they cameoing from?".
*** ''Tales of Vesperia'' itself is likely a major source of a lot of meddling, when the [[PlayStation 3]] version was announced, even BEFORE the European version for the 360 was released, with ABNORMALLY high amounts of new content, a lot of japanese fans decided to poke about the DVD and discovered traces of these "added" contents were present in the code already. Then there is the ingame remarks like [http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/09/21/bandai-namco-shamelessly-lied-to-xbox-testers/ this]....and the new character having identifying marks all over the 360 source code. All fingers are pointing at Sony and Namco for this one.
*** ''Tales of Vesperia'' itself is likely a major source of a lot of meddling, when the [[PlayStation 3]] version was announced, even BEFORE the European version for the 360 was released, with ABNORMALLY high amounts of new content, a lot of japanese fans decided to poke about the DVD and discovered traces of these "added" contents were present in the code already. Then there is the ingame remarks like [http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/09/21/bandai-namco-shamelessly-lied-to-xbox-testers/ this]....and the new character having identifying marks all over the 360 source code. All fingers are pointing at Sony and Namco for this one.
** Regarding ''[[Tales of Eternia]]'', there's actually a different reason for that -- It was originally changed to "Tales of Destiny II" because of potential copyright infringements with ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'' toy lines. Some have suspected this was the reason for the PSP port not getting an American release, but on the plus side, at least the PSP is region-free; and it's possible to get an English version.
** Regarding ''[[Tales of Eternia]]'', there's actually a different reason for that -- It was originally changed to "Tales of Destiny II" because of potential copyright infringements with ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'' toy lines. Some have suspected this was the reason for the PSP port not getting an American release, but on the plus side, at least the PSP is region-free; and it's possible to get an English version.
* For a game that was ''born'' from [[Executive Meddling]], we have the ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' franchise in all its glory. In order to compete with the companies of [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]] and [[Sonic the Hedgehog]], Sony realized that they needed to appeal to the "kids market" in gaming, considering most of the games in the late 90s for the [[PlayStation]] were [[Rated "M" for Money|teen and adult oriented]]. So with the aid of Universal Games and Insomniac, they created a game that was basically [[Recycled in Space|Sonic as a dragon]]. Funny thing is, Insomniac never had full rights to the franchise (and apparently, didn't want anything to do with it, as seen in ''Year Of the Dragon''), in which it was sold off to Universal only and it became a [[Franchise Zombie]]. Well, after the release of ''A Hero's Tail'', long runner [[Sierra]] bought the franchise, and gave it a severe [[Continuity Reboot]] (The whole Legend of Spyro series), which due to insufficient man power and funds, created a [[Your Mileage May Vary|controversy of the quality of the games]]. Needless to say, Activision bought out Sierra and let them keep the franchise in hopes "to have promising results," which of course, costs Sierra its better, older franchises like ''[[King's Quest]]'' and ''[[Space Quest]]''.
* For a game that was ''born'' from [[Executive Meddling]], we have the ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' franchise in all its glory. In order to compete with the companies of [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]] and [[Sonic the Hedgehog]], Sony realized that they needed to appeal to the "kids market" in gaming, considering most of the games in the late 90s for the [[PlayStation]] were [[Rated "M" for Money|teen and adult oriented]]. So with the aid of Universal Games and Insomniac, they created a game that was basically [[Recycled in Space|Sonic as a dragon]]. Funny thing is, Insomniac never had full rights to the franchise (and apparently, didn't want anything to do with it, as seen in ''Year Of the Dragon''), in which it was sold off to Universal only and it became a [[Franchise Zombie]]. Well, after the release of ''A Hero's Tail'', long runner [[Sierra]] bought the franchise, and gave it a severe [[Continuity Reboot]] (The whole Legend of Spyro series), which due to insufficient man power and funds, created a [[Your Mileage May Vary|controversy of the quality of the games]]. Needless to say, Activision bought out Sierra and let them keep the franchise in hopes "to have promising results," which of course, costs Sierra its better, older franchises like ''[[King's Quest]]'' and ''[[Space Quest]]''.
* Sony America has a bad history of refusing to localize [[Video Game Remake|Video Game Remakes]] and [[Updated Rerelease|Updated Rereleases]] unless they have a certain amount of new content added. Such was the case of the PSP version of ''[[Breath of Fire]] 3''.
* Sony America has a bad history of refusing to localize [[Video Game Remake|Video Game Remakes]] and [[Updated Rerelease|Updated Rereleases]] unless they have a certain amount of new content added. Such was the case of the PSP version of ''[[Breath of Fire]] 3''.
** For those of you wondering how bad this is, there is a ''full English version'' of the game, but it was released only in Europe.
** For those of you wondering how bad this is, there is a ''full English version'' of the game, but it was released only in Europe.
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** What about the porno magazine in ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]''?
** What about the porno magazine in ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]''?
* ''[[Mortal Kombat (video game)|Mortal Kombat]]'' received a [[Bowdlerise|neutering from Nintendo of America as well]]. The SNES version of ''Mortal Kombat'' had the blood changed to sweat, and the fatalities were severely weakened (in one example, Johnny Cage punches his opponent's head off in the original version... in the SNES version... he delivers a hefty kick to the chest). The [[Sega Genesis]] port was technically inferior, but ended up being the most popular because it contained all the gore that made the point of the game in the first place. Realising this, Nintendo of America released ''[[Mortal Kombat 2]]'' on the SNES in all its gory glory.
* ''[[Mortal Kombat (video game)|Mortal Kombat]]'' received a [[Bowdlerise|neutering from Nintendo of America as well]]. The SNES version of ''Mortal Kombat'' had the blood changed to sweat, and the fatalities were severely weakened (in one example, Johnny Cage punches his opponent's head off in the original version... in the SNES version... he delivers a hefty kick to the chest). The [[Sega Genesis]] port was technically inferior, but ended up being the most popular because it contained all the gore that made the point of the game in the first place. Realising this, Nintendo of America released ''[[Mortal Kombat 2]]'' on the SNES in all its gory glory.
** Just to show how times have changed, when Nintendo edited out ''MK'''s gore factor, they got a ton of angry letters not only from fans of the game, but their ''parents'', decrying them for assuming the role of [[Moral Guardians]].
** Just to show how times have changed, when Nintendo edited out ''MK'''s gore factor, they got a ton of angry letters not only from fans of the game, but their ''parents'', decrying them for assuming the role of [[Moral Guardians]].
** Speaking of ''Mortal Kombat'', while the game was still under their control, [[Midway Games]] was hellbent on turning it into a [[Franchise Zombie]], eventually announcing plans for a new MK game ''every year''. Likely, that led to the poor quality of both ''[[Mortal Kombat Armageddon]]'' and ''[[Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe]]'', and led to their bankruptcy and MK being sold to the more patient [[Warner Bros]].
** Speaking of ''Mortal Kombat'', while the game was still under their control, [[Midway Games]] was hellbent on turning it into a [[Franchise Zombie]], eventually announcing plans for a new MK game ''every year''. Likely, that led to the poor quality of both ''[[Mortal Kombat Armageddon]]'' and ''[[Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe]]'', and led to their bankruptcy and MK being sold to the more patient [[Warner Bros]].
** ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]'' has an example of executive meddling that turned out to be positive influence (through YMMV; some see it as unwanted/unnecessary character shilling) - Sony didn't want [[God of War (series)|Kratos]], who is a [[Guest Fighter]] in the game, to look weak, so he keeps his famous angry look on his face even when [[Defiant to the End|being at the receiving end of fatalities]]. It looks very cool.
** ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]'' has an example of executive meddling that turned out to be positive influence (through YMMV; some see it as unwanted/unnecessary character shilling) - Sony didn't want [[God of War (series)|Kratos]], who is a [[Guest Fighter]] in the game, to look weak, so he keeps his famous angry look on his face even when [[Defiant to the End|being at the receiving end of fatalities]]. It looks very cool.
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** For an example of how bad this got: First off, "adding new content" for the US/International server was months behind the Japanese server... when all of the content already existed on the game's disk. Secondly, Sega of Japan had to approve every thing Sega of America did with the server, including vital technical fixes. When the billing server went haywire in the middle of a major, limited-time event and started locking players out, Sega of America immediately put out a notice saying "don't worry, we'll fix the billing server and extend the event to make up for it!" because of course they'd get quick permission to fix such a huge issue, right? Wrong. Due to SoJ taking their time giving SoA the thumbs-up to take action, about a month went by (and the event ended) before fixing even began, and the fix was "just turn the billing server off and let anyone play for free." Only months later was the billing issue truly fixed and the promo event re-run so finally everyone got to play.
** For an example of how bad this got: First off, "adding new content" for the US/International server was months behind the Japanese server... when all of the content already existed on the game's disk. Secondly, Sega of Japan had to approve every thing Sega of America did with the server, including vital technical fixes. When the billing server went haywire in the middle of a major, limited-time event and started locking players out, Sega of America immediately put out a notice saying "don't worry, we'll fix the billing server and extend the event to make up for it!" because of course they'd get quick permission to fix such a huge issue, right? Wrong. Due to SoJ taking their time giving SoA the thumbs-up to take action, about a month went by (and the event ended) before fixing even began, and the fix was "just turn the billing server off and let anyone play for free." Only months later was the billing issue truly fixed and the promo event re-run so finally everyone got to play.
* Turns out this is why the ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' (and in fact all of the KOEI Warriors games) have their infamous voice acting; the localizations have to be done on schedule regardless of quality, and the international subsidiaries need the permission of KOEI Japan to use the original voice acting; that hasn't been the case in America since ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'' in 2004, and ''Dynasty Warriors 3'' before it.
* Turns out this is why the ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' (and in fact all of the KOEI Warriors games) have their infamous voice acting; the localizations have to be done on schedule regardless of quality, and the international subsidiaries need the permission of KOEI Japan to use the original voice acting; that hasn't been the case in America since ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'' in 2004, and ''Dynasty Warriors 3'' before it.
* According to recently-ousted creative leads Jason Ward and Vince Zampella, Activision demanded that Infinity Ward produce another ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' game. Given eighteen months to work on a title they didn't want to do in the first place, they made ''Modern Warfare 2''. That was supposed to be the full title...until Activision forced "[[Call of Duty]]" onto the package to retain brand identity, despite Infinity Ward intending ''Modern Warfare'' to be a Spin Off. Depending on whose story you choose to believe, Zampella and West apparently started talking to other game developers (which Activision frowned upon), which caused their dismissal, or they were held in their offices by security and interrogated (along with their colleagues) because of their refusal to follow Activision's demands. Whatever the case may be, roughly three-quarters of IW's staff left the company afterwards (including most of the creative and writing team behind the ''Modern Warfare'' series) Activision is currently farming ''[[Call of Duty]]'' out to other developers they own to pump out at least one more Call of Duty game a year. What Activision did to Ward and Zampella to thank them for making them a product that had the single biggest opening weekend of any entertainment product ever defines [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]].
* According to recently-ousted creative leads Jason Ward and Vince Zampella, Activision demanded that Infinity Ward produce another ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' game. Given eighteen months to work on a title they didn't want to do in the first place, they made ''Modern Warfare 2''. That was supposed to be the full title...until Activision forced "[[Call of Duty]]" onto the package to retain brand identity, despite Infinity Ward intending ''Modern Warfare'' to be a Spin Off. Depending on whose story you choose to believe, Zampella and West apparently started talking to other game developers (which Activision frowned upon), which caused their dismissal, or they were held in their offices by security and interrogated (along with their colleagues) because of their refusal to follow Activision's demands. Whatever the case may be, roughly three-quarters of IW's staff left the company afterwards (including most of the creative and writing team behind the ''Modern Warfare'' series) Activision is currently farming ''[[Call of Duty]]'' out to other developers they own to pump out at least one more Call of Duty game a year. What Activision did to Ward and Zampella to thank them for making them a product that had the single biggest opening weekend of any entertainment product ever defines [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]].
* If it weren't for those [[Executive Meddling|meddlin' executives]] we'd be short one [[Ace Attorney|poker playin' hobo]].
* If it weren't for those [[Executive Meddling|meddlin' executives]] we'd be short one [[Ace Attorney|poker playin' hobo]].
** To clarify, the series' creator wanted to make another Ace Attorney game, but with an entire new cast of characters. Capcom pressured the guy to keep Phoenix Wright in the game since they believed his name and image alone would sell a ton. The creator still wanted to go with his image of a new cast, but to make Capcom happy, he threw in Phoenix as a man who got disbarred from court and no longer practices law while newbie defense attorney Apollo Justice replaces Phoenix's role. The meddling may explain why only [[The Judge]], Phoenix, and {{spoiler|Gumshoe and Mike Meekins via flashback case}} appear in the game while everyone else from the series beforehand are mysteriously missing without any word on what happened to them.
** To clarify, the series' creator wanted to make another Ace Attorney game, but with an entire new cast of characters. Capcom pressured the guy to keep Phoenix Wright in the game since they believed his name and image alone would sell a ton. The creator still wanted to go with his image of a new cast, but to make Capcom happy, he threw in Phoenix as a man who got disbarred from court and no longer practices law while newbie defense attorney Apollo Justice replaces Phoenix's role. The meddling may explain why only [[The Judge]], Phoenix, and {{spoiler|Gumshoe and Mike Meekins via flashback case}} appear in the game while everyone else from the series beforehand are mysteriously missing without any word on what happened to them.
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'' was subject to executive meddling both in Japan and in America: For Japan, it ended up having to edit the torture scene so Strangelove would use a device called "Laughing Rods" that would essentially tickle the victim in order to keep its rating in Japan, and future references to the torture were either omitted or just vaguely referenced for the same reason as well, to which [[Hideo Kojima]] expressed disappointment in his twitter account. This actually leads to an interesting role reversal, as the countries outside Japan actually get the Torture scene unedited. Countries outside of Japan also have similar cuts due to executives, although nowhere near as drastic. You know the Tortilla Chips, Lime Soda, Zero-Calorie Soda, Spicy/Great/Future Curry, and Men's Cologne recovery items as well as the Solid, Liquid, Solidus, and Super Magazines? Well, in the Japanese version, those were actually real life products (Namely Doritos, Mt. Dew, Pepsi NEX, Bon-Curry/Bon-Curry Gold, AXE Bodyspray, and various Japanese magazines, respectively), but their names were changed because of the strict trademark laws outside Japan.
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'' was subject to executive meddling both in Japan and in America: For Japan, it ended up having to edit the torture scene so Strangelove would use a device called "Laughing Rods" that would essentially tickle the victim in order to keep its rating in Japan, and future references to the torture were either omitted or just vaguely referenced for the same reason as well, to which [[Hideo Kojima]] expressed disappointment in his twitter account. This actually leads to an interesting role reversal, as the countries outside Japan actually get the Torture scene unedited. Countries outside of Japan also have similar cuts due to executives, although nowhere near as drastic. You know the Tortilla Chips, Lime Soda, Zero-Calorie Soda, Spicy/Great/Future Curry, and Men's Cologne recovery items as well as the Solid, Liquid, Solidus, and Super Magazines? Well, in the Japanese version, those were actually real life products (Namely Doritos, Mt. Dew, Pepsi NEX, Bon-Curry/Bon-Curry Gold, AXE Bodyspray, and various Japanese magazines, respectively), but their names were changed because of the strict trademark laws outside Japan.
** ''Peace Walker'' actually has actual Executive Meddling in-game (or rather: Executive-Branch meddling). In both EVA's discussion tapes and Strangelove's Memories, it delves quite a bit into the Mercury Project that The Boss participated in. For one thing: things were going smoothly for the project up until the Department of Defense, primarily out of fear and an extreme sense of competition against Soviet Russia due to recent intelligence suggesting that they actually will send a man into space, had the Mercury team install a window into the spacecraft that she was going to be launched in at the last moment (well, close to it anyways if you get my drift), using the whole "She's been irradiated once, and thus she will be immune to the radiation in space" to justify their decision, to which Strangelove never bought since she knew due to her rational and logical nature that her being irradiated once would actually achieve the exact opposite effect. Turns out that the entire thing ended in complete disaster: While The Boss did end up seeing the Earth and ultimately spawned her will, the spacecraft due to their rushing the project to beat Yuri Gagarin into space ended up crashlanding far beyond the recovery point, nearly causing her death, and frying her a lot in the process, and she ended up in a coma for six whole months. This also meant that contrary to what The Boss stated in her final speech, she did not actually participate in the Bay of Pigs invasion, as she was in a coma during that time. Also, thanks to the DOD's failure, Yuri Gagarin was officially the first man in space, even though The Boss beat him by a few seconds, and as a result, the DOD and everyone else in the military brass/government started hating on her despite the fact that the whole failure was ''their'' fault.
** ''Peace Walker'' actually has actual Executive Meddling in-game (or rather: Executive-Branch meddling). In both EVA's discussion tapes and Strangelove's Memories, it delves quite a bit into the Mercury Project that The Boss participated in. For one thing: things were going smoothly for the project up until the Department of Defense, primarily out of fear and an extreme sense of competition against Soviet Russia due to recent intelligence suggesting that they actually will send a man into space, had the Mercury team install a window into the spacecraft that she was going to be launched in at the last moment (well, close to it anyways if you get my drift), using the whole "She's been irradiated once, and thus she will be immune to the radiation in space" to justify their decision, to which Strangelove never bought since she knew due to her rational and logical nature that her being irradiated once would actually achieve the exact opposite effect. Turns out that the entire thing ended in complete disaster: While The Boss did end up seeing the Earth and ultimately spawned her will, the spacecraft due to their rushing the project to beat Yuri Gagarin into space ended up crashlanding far beyond the recovery point, nearly causing her death, and frying her a lot in the process, and she ended up in a coma for six whole months. This also meant that contrary to what The Boss stated in her final speech, she did not actually participate in the Bay of Pigs invasion, as she was in a coma during that time. Also, thanks to the DOD's failure, Yuri Gagarin was officially the first man in space, even though The Boss beat him by a few seconds, and as a result, the DOD and everyone else in the military brass/government started hating on her despite the fact that the whole failure was ''their'' fault.
* ''[[Conkers Bad Fur Day]]'' was a rather infamous example of executive meddling. Originally, the premise of the N64 ''Conker'' game was supposed to be vastly different: playing out to be very similar to something like ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'', or in-series, ''Conker's Pocket Adventure''. However, the executives at Rareware started to become fearful that fans may not like the platformer because it ''was'' too similar to ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'', and after a very negative critique during the testing stages, Rare retooled the franchise causing it to be aimed at a more mature crowd, including sex references, alcoholic beverages, and lewd behavior -- which resulted in poor sales.
* ''[[Conker's Bad Fur Day]]'' was a rather infamous example of executive meddling. Originally, the premise of the N64 ''Conker'' game was supposed to be vastly different: playing out to be very similar to something like ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'', or in-series, ''Conker's Pocket Adventure''. However, the executives at Rareware started to become fearful that fans may not like the platformer because it ''was'' too similar to ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'', and after a very negative critique during the testing stages, Rare retooled the franchise causing it to be aimed at a more mature crowd, including sex references, alcoholic beverages, and lewd behavior -- which resulted in poor sales.
** Actually, the poor sales had more to do with the dominance of the PlayStation and Nintendo's squeamishness than with Rare's retooling. The game was a critical success and has a cult following. A case of [[Screwed by the Network|screwed by consumers?]]
** Actually, the poor sales had more to do with the dominance of the PlayStation and Nintendo's squeamishness than with Rare's retooling. The game was a critical success and has a cult following. A case of [[Screwed by the Network|screwed by consumers?]]
** In a straighter example of this, the [[Updated Rerelease]], ''Conker: Live And Reloaded'' heavily censored a significantly larger portion of the game's foul language (As mentioned above, combined with the gore, the foul language was the entire point of the game, [[Irony|though by this point it had actually become less taboo]]).
** In a straighter example of this, the [[Updated Rerelease]], ''Conker: Live And Reloaded'' heavily censored a significantly larger portion of the game's foul language (As mentioned above, combined with the gore, the foul language was the entire point of the game, [[Irony|though by this point it had actually become less taboo]]).
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