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Overshadowed by Controversy: Difference between revisions
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** In 2021, Rockstar's parent company [[Take Two Interactive]] shut down unofficial porting projects for ''GTA 3'' and ''Vice City'', as well as total conversion mods for said games and ''San Andreas'' - some of which were over a decade old and were in no way intended to deprive Take-Two of revenue. Fans were none too pleased, to say the least, as modding has been an integral part of the ''GTA'' community. This, along with the original games being delisted on Steam, was likely done as a result of their plans to release ''Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition'', a [[Compilation Rerelease]] of the three 3D-era games ported using the Unreal Engine - this did not help matters in the slightest, as it was beset with numerous game-breaking bugs and frame rate issues, leading players to compare it unfavourably to ''[[Cyberpunk 2077]]'' (whose release was similarly marred with technical issues). The outrage was such that it forced Rockstar to make the original RenderWare-based editions available on Steam again to placate dissatisfied players.
* The social commentary of ''[[Mafia III]]'' sits right smack in the middle of the civil rights and racism issues the US is facing in recent years, especially with its portrayal of the [[Ku Klux Klan]], Confederate apologists and racist Southeners as [[Acceptable Targets]]. [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|Needless to say]], said right-wing/alt-right bigots took to Steam to review-bomb the game in what they saw as turning the ''Mafia'' series into an agenda-pushing propaganda piece by "social justice warriors". Not helping matters was series creator Daniel Vávra's connection with the Gamergate movement either - Vávra left 2K mid-way through its development out of dissatisfaction over the publisher's demands for the game.
** Heck, even Daniel Vávra himself wasn't spared from any controversy either. On top of his political views, which lean towards the right-wing/alt-right spectrum and has expressed contempt over what he views as "progressive bias" (read:feminists and other contentious sociopolitical debacles spilling over to popular media), he has been criticised even by fellow Czech gamers, particularly fans of the original ''[[Mafia]]'' game, for his egoistic and arrogant demeanour especially in light of criticism levelled towards the ''Definitive Edition'' remake of the first game. Adding fuel to the fire was when he ridiculed actor Jeremy Luke for looking too much like [[Shrek]] or the notorious webcomic character Pepe The Frog - [[Too Soon|while Luke was still recovering from the loss of his father during development]]. Vávra tried to play damage control in a comment on
* In a similar vein to ''Postal'', ''[[Hatred]]'' became so reviled by even video game journalists and some gamers that it was initially rejected from [[Steam]] due to its gratuitous and no-holds-barred brand of sociopathic violence, only for Gabe Newell to apologise and have it re-listed. [[Epic Games]] reportedly sought to disassociate themselves from the issue by requesting to have the Unreal Engine logo removed from marketing material. (While the ''[[Unreal (series)|Unreal]]'' series is known for its graphic violence, it is rooted more in science-fiction fantasies rather than real-world apathy towards people.)
* ''[[Night Trap]]'' was one of the video games that contributed to the creation of the ESRB ratings in the United States. An infamous bathroom scene<ref>
* Besides ''Night Trap'', ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' was the scapegoat of parents and politicians for its visceral violence and subject matter. ''Mortal Kombat''{{'}}s digitised sprites based on footage from live actors made for what was at the time photorealistic violence which ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' described as "delighted young players but disturbed parents." Both games ultimately served as the catalyst for what is now the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.
* ''[[Thrill Kill]]'' for the PlayStation was billed to be the "new ''[[Mortal Kombat]]''", with the technical feat of up to four players fighting in the same room as its selling point, but the gratuitous violence and hardcore sex content, which garnered a rare "Adults Only" (AO) rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board, was too much for [[Electronic Arts]] to swallow, ordering Paradox Development to scrap the game; former Paradox employees who worked on the game eventually leaked beta and pre-final builds of the game to a scene group, and the game engine was later reused for ''[[Wu-Tang Clan|Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style]]'', ''X-Men: Mutant Academy'', ''X-Men: Mutant Academy 2'' and ''Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots Arena''.
* Perhaps hypocritically enough, EA [[No Such Thing as Bad Publicity|purposely courted controversy]] for ''[[Dante's Inferno (video game)|Dante's Inferno]]'' by staging a fake protest where twenty protesters picketed at E3 2009 and condemned EA for what was viewed as a sacrilegious and insensitive game. EA later confirmed that it was just a publicity stunt to drive up hype, only for ''actual'' Christian bloggers to condemn the video game giant for pulling off such a tasteless stunt.
* ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]]'' not only courted controversy for its gore and occult imagery, it also came under fire (pun not intended) for being associated with a number of school shootings in the United States, most notably the [[Columbine]] massacre where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and injured 24 others. It didn't help that Harris and Klebold were avid players of the game and made WADs themselves (though contrary to sensationalist reports, the "Harris levels" were not at all based on the Columbine High School's layout and did not contain sprites of the school's students and faculty), and that Harris said that the killing would be "like playing Doom", and "it'll be like the LA riots, the Oklahoma bombing, World War II, Vietnam, Duke Nukem and Doom all mixed together", and that his shotgun was "straight out of the game". Upset by the mainstream media's stereotyping of video game players as degenerate youth, the ''Doom'' community distanced themselves from the shooters by deleting and/or banning any (re-)uploads of the Harris WADs and defended themselves and the game from any sort of direct responsibility. Prominent Doomworld community members Javier "Dukrous" Heredia and Scott "Covaro" Cover both explained their side of the story to news media (in Covaro's case during a round-table talk with Bill and Hillary Clinton on ''Good Morning America''),
** Ironically enough, the latest{{when}} entry in the series, ''[[Doom Eternal]]'', courted controversy not for its hellish imagery but for its use of a ''kernel-mode'' driver by Denuvo as an anti-cheat deterrent. While kernel-mode drivers have been successfully used elsewhere provided that there is transparency over what it does and that the drivers are easily removed when uninstalled, security concerns and Denuvo's already dubious reputation caused backlash which forced Bethesda to save face and have the driver removed in favour of a different anti-cheat solution.
** The 3DO conversion became this over time: the conversion itself was ridiculed for running at a slideshow frame rate, though Rebecca Heineman, the programmer behind this port, was largely spared from the blame as she was basically tasked to [[Christmas Rushed|rush]] the port in time for Black Friday and the subsequent holiday season, and was given a retail copy of the game (instead of the id Tech source code she needed as a starting point) by Art Data, a fly-by-night company founded by Randy Scott, a wannabe video game mogul who did what amounted to defrauding both Heineman and the gaming press of the time by lying to them that the conversion was mostly finished and was to feature additional content such as new weapons and Full Motion Video sequences, supposedly to further showcase the 3DO's capabilities, and having a gross misconception on how video games are developed, seemingly under the impression that porting the game is just the matter of a cut-and-paste/recompile job. Randy Scott and his company flew off the radar since then, but he resurfaced in 2017 when he was accused of molesting young girls at his music school.
* ''[[Kingpin: Life of Crime]]'' also had the unfortunate timing of being released shortly after the Columbine tragedy. Xatrix Entertainment, later known as Grey Matter Interactive and merged with Treyarch, was faced with mounting pressure from legislators and [[Moral Guardians]] who were scrambling to seek the truth as to what motivated Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold into going on [[Going Postal|a blood-drenched rampage]]. American senators debated on the game's obscene content, and the National Institute on Media and the Family singled out ''Kingpin'' in its 1999 report on video game violence. Xatrix responded by implementing a [[Bowdlerise|safe mode]] option upon installation where players can opt for a censored experience devoid of blood and with bleeped-out profanities. Xatrix CEO Drew Markham assured in an install-time message that the game "was never intended for children" and was made "with mature themes made for a mature audience." Regardless, many retailers have chosen not to stock the game, making it a commercial failure and leading to Xatrix's demise; they would later reform as Grey Matter Interactive which only developed a few games before shutting down for good.
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* ''The Guy Game'' would've been yet another run-of-the-mill trivia quiz-slash-puzzle game with a [[Fanservice]] theme taking the form of a live-action [[Full Motion Video]] game show, where players are treated to bare-breasted women should they complete any of the minigames. There was just one problem though: one of the women in the game going by the name Diane filed suit and alleged that she was unaware that her footage would be used in a video game, and she was [[Really Seventeen Years Old|seventeen]] when the footage was taken, giving it the dubious distinction of being ''the only piece of underage pornography to be licensed for home consoles.'' Unsurprisingly, the game was pulled from shelves as it technically counts as [[Paedo Hunt|child porn]] (given the latter, it is presumed that all unsold copies and masters were destroyed to avoid any legal repercussions over the possession of illegal pornography as well as personality rights issues), though Topheavy Studios eventually re-released ''The Guy Game'' as an interactive DVD under the subtitle ''Game Over'' with the offending footage removed and replaced with other models. The child porn controversy may have accounted for Jeff Spangenberg going off the radar since then.
* The vulgar humour and adult themes in [[Acclaim]]'s ''BMX XXX'' was universally viewed as one of the worst (if not ''the worst'') gimmicks to grace a sports game. It was said that Acclaim somehow had the brilliant idea of having [[Z-Axis]] [[Executive Meddling|turn]] what was going to be an extremely subpar game [[Sex Sells|into a raunchy sex comedy]], breasts, babes and all, in a vain and puerile effort to drum up publicity and make up for the lacklustre gameplay, likely under the impression that immature men would grab a copy and play it for the smut regardless of the game's actual quality. The late extreme sports athlete Dave Mirra, whose namesake video game series formed the basis for ''BMX XXX'', balked at the decision and sued Acclaim for the use of his name and likeness, forcing Acclaim to release the game without the Dave Mirra branding. Sony also forced Acclaim to censor the PS2 release as they "didn't feel that the topless nudity fundamentally added to the gameplay experience". The obscenity controversy and negative reception towards ''BMX XXX'' eventually contributed to Acclaim's downfall and bankruptcy.
* On top of recent entries in the ''[[NBA 2K]]'' series being peppered with increasingly pervasive monetization schemes like [[Loot Boxes]], ''NBA 2K20'' was condemned and ridiculed by gaming circles for its blatant and tasteless use of casino gambling mechanics in a game rated for players ''as young as three years old''. The
* ''[[Star Wars: Battlefront (series)|Star Wars Battlefront II]]'' garnered the attention of legislators over its use of loot box mechanics and prompted ''Star Wars'' series owner [[Disney]] to force EA into toning down the use of microtransactions by removing the lootbox mechanic in favour of paid cosmetic items.
* Speaking of controversies on journalistic integrity and ethics, ''[[Driver 3]]'' aka ''DRIV3R'' became embroiled in a review scandal called "[[Scandalgate|DRIV3Rgate]]" where two outlets operated by Future plc, ''PSM2'' and ''Xbox World'', gave the game 9/10 scores despite it especially the PC version having been saddled with numerous technical issues, leading to accusations of bribery and corruption through review-fixing on part of Atari and Future plc. Rubbing salt in the wound was that of a controversial thread on the GamesRadar forums, also owned by Future, being filled to the brim with posts critical of the dubious reviews. Posts defending ''DRIV3R'' and Future followed suit, but this was later outed as a desperate act of [[Astroturfing|astroturfing]] by Babel Media, a marketing company hired by Atari to generate fake praise, when the questionable posts were traced to them by the forum moderators. The controversy spilled over to [[Wikipedia]] several years later, when doubts over the scandal's notability were made
* Despite receiving critical acclaim from mainstream gaming press, ''[[The Last of Us Part II]]'' was [[Critical Dissonance|savaged]] by a number of gaming circles for its inclusion of LGBTQ+ content and themes, branding it a "[[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|social justice warrior]]" or a "woke" game as some perceive it as [[Anvilicious|pervasive agenda-pushing]] not unlike films featuring female, LGBT and racially diverse cast members. Kotaku's Riley MacLeod saw the controversy as a weak point with Metacritic's aggregation system, where he stated that the site "fails to take into account the diverse critical opinions of the game", instead focusing on the overall scores and seemingly padding it out to make the game appear better than it is, than the actual content of the review and provide a more even assessment of the game's critical both in the eyes of the press and the gaming public. It also didn't help that, like what happened with the ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' remake, the game's cast members were unfairly harassed and trolled by self-styled "edgelords" who take offense at anything remotely "diverse" or "feminist". Considering the disconcertingly divisive sociopolitical atmosphere in the United States in this day and age, the homophobic and anti-feminist sentiment thrown at ''The Last of Us Part II'' is unsurprising.
** The other part of the controversy was due to leaks of the game revealing that one of the main characters of the first game got [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|a very ignominious death at the hands of the new playable character]], while the other remaining characters received extreme [[Character Derailment]] compared with their previous characterization (and the actual release of the game revealing that the game has a bleak [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]] story–with a lot of [[Shoot the Dog|figurative and literal dog shooting]]–with a [[Bittersweet Ending]] very high in the bitter that gave little emotional resolution). The leaks forced a definite release date of the game after some years in [[Development Hell]], and the ensuing takedowns of leaks and early critics only irritated gamers that were already angry with both Sony and Naughty Dog. The above was not helped by the heads of the project responding to their harassment by calling any critics that didn't like the game "regressive" and "misogynists", [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|whenever they actually were or not]] due to lumping the people criticizing the game for their narrative choices with the misogynistic trolls mentioned above.
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