10 Times Publishers Screwed Over Video Games

[@jacktaylor6253]

Wasn't Shadow of War the micro-transaction Game? Not Shadow of mordor?

[@sharaizmagsi5422]

Yeah they mentioned in the end shadow of war doubled down on microtransactions

[@WRREKK]

Is it any surprise that half this list is EA. Why do we still put up with their sh!t again?

[@ericstelzman5190]

Two words: exclusive rights.

[@durtydan420]

For the few good games they have I suppose 😅

[@GiordanDiodato]

Dudebros buying sports games

[@halfricansaint7727]

They have good IPs, which they’ve sadly all but run into the ground by excessive milking and greed by this point.

[@thedevilsrockstxr2309]

People love sports and no one's forcing u to put up with em

[@ryanbates9136]

I would add Fallout to this list, but not necessarily from publisher meddling, but lack thereof. FO4 is almost 9 years old at this point, and Bethesda Howard has made it known that he's in no rush. Last time this happened, Bethesda tossed it to Obsidian like a hot potato and screamed "YOU HAVE 18 MONTHS!" The problem Bethesda has this time is that last time they tried this, Obsidian pulled a Reverse card out of their proverbial Uno deck and made "Fallout: New Vegas," the best game in the series I will not be taking questions at this time thank you for coming to my TED talk. Now, again, Bethesda is at a spot where they desperately need to breathe life into Fallout again (we don't talk about 76 no no), and instead of thinking of the best for the series, they're just sitting on the IP on the off chance that Todd Bethesda might get shown up again. That to me at least is a form of meddling. Now I'm not wishing bad on Bethesda; I would love to see them knock it out of the park this coming month. But when you have a lucrative IP on life support, stubbornly sitting on it as an ego move instead of asking for an assist is akin to pulling the IV out.

[@Aeturnalis]

Mass Effect Andromeda was another game that EA ruined. Gave a huge project to a team that had no experience with it, then forced them to start over with Frostbite two-thirds of the way through, then forced them to rush it out before it was done. It was supposed to have ~10 new alien species, and numerous explorable planets, ended up with 2 species and 5 planets. Anthem seems worse though, so it fits for the list. I don't know, I never played that garbage lol

[@Franklinsbrother]

Perfect examples of why Publishers should be banned from interfering with developers' projects. They need to make money too, but their meddling ruins so many visions the devs have.

[@kevinclapson]

Kind of hard to tell the people paying for everything to stay out of it completely. I agree with the notion, but it's just not realistic.

[@thedevilsrockstxr2309]

Said like someone tht always been a worker

[@PastaMaster115]

With disaster after disaster ruining games and sales of games, you'd think publishers would learn by now to keep their noses out of the creative process.

[@jhknightmare5131]

When Bethesda screwed over Obsidian with New Vegas’ meta score bonus

[@tysoncarpenter8628]

I've gone retro! I'm so over micro transactions. I want to buy a game where I just get the whole game! Where all I've gotta buy is the game to win and play

[@milodoiing2280]

Play indie games. There ok...some good indie games out there like hollow knight

[@tysoncarpenter8628]

@@milodoiing2280 I really don't like to many Indi games. But there are a couple out there

[@tysoncarpenter8628]

@@milodoiing2280 Im talking like wrestling games where all u have Todo is play the game to unlock more playable characters. Where u don't have to buy 1000 character packs to get the whole roster. Video games are ruined for me. Call of duty is the same every year FIFA sold people the same game 2 years in a row. There are just so many shady things going on in new games these days

[@DavidPruitt]

Need a list of "Games EA screwed over because they insisted on using FrostBite"

[@ozhowlett]

Shadow of Mordor didn't have microtransactions though. Shadow of war did (and then subsequently removed them after the backlash). The actual notable thing with shadow of Mordor and the publisher was that if you wanted a review copy, the review had to be positive and have most of the review talking about the nemesis system.

[@mattlloyd6651]

Sadly, about 75% of EA's revenue comes from live services. With a company worth of around $7.5B meaning about $5.6B comes from micro-transactions, this is never going to go away and they're going to push it in every game they can. With that much money going into their coffers, most players don't seem to have a real problem with it either. It's a no-win situation for us that just want a complete, high-quality game to buy.

[@shipdit8421]

I really miss titanfall 2 multiplayer, the level design and pilot/titan balancing must have been tough needles to thread, but they pulled it off

[@krazykonnects8213]

I think its still live

[@SpaghettiYOLOKingTTV]

Titanfall 2 was really good. Shame it didn't catch on more.

[@genin8562]

Agree. Unfortunately the mass preferred preferred the same cod (that that year had an horrible multiplayer) and Bf1.

[@rangerthederpgoat2326]

One of the few multiplayer games I play and enjoy.

[@kritizismmusics9737]

I know right. It's like. If you pay to make it. My god. Pay less than 1% of the cost to make it to fix it. And get more money. Wow I could be a ceo. Wait. Nvm. I have to be soulless like EA

[@ElDodrigo]

I'm still surprised EA is still in business! EA used to mean Electronic Arts.. now, it's "Extremely Awful, it's in the name"...

[@Dreadjaws]

Mankind Divided is such a sore spot for me. Purely from a gameplay perspective the game is spectacular. It improves in everything its precedessor did, it has many more options for playing, it has fewer areas, but those that exist are quite impressive in scope and it has some of the best DLC in stealth game history... but it's very clear it's unfinished. Putting the Deus Ex team to work in Avengers only because Squeenix was desperate to suceed in the live-service market just adds insult to the injury.

[@SilverSpectre266]

Legacy of Kain, in its entirety. There was once a new title in the IP in development called Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun that was intended to be another single player installation, but it was cancelled and turned instead into a free to play multiplayer game known as Nosgoth by Square Enix and we know how that went.

[@SirYoshifumi]

Marvel Avengers and Anthem really just needed a little more love, neither truly deserved to be shut down

[@lurkerrekrul]

Thief: Deadly Shadows - The first two Thief games were incredible first-person stealth games that built up a huge cult following. In fact, people are still creating new missions for them even today. When the third game was being developed, it was given to a different Eidos development team and they were told to give priority to the Xbox version. As a result the levels were smaller and broken up by load zones (actual portals in the game, not just a line you cross that triggers a load) which the NPCs couldn't cross. Water became deadly, even though the first two games featured underwater sections. Rope arrows (shoot one into any wooden surface and a rope drops down letting you climb it) were removed and replaced with gimmicky climb gloves that only worked on select surfaces. The game was also designed to be a third-person game and as such, the ability to lean around corners was eliminated.

[@ledumpsterfire6474]

Y'all need to stop defending Kojima in the MGS5 situation. Not to say Konami was innocent, but Kojima surely wasn't either. The guy had enjoyed carte blanche pretty much his entire career with them. He got too comfy with it, and started thinking he could chase video game fairytales on their dime. They spent years on an engine that didn't really do anything special, producing literally nothing resembling a marketable product in all that time. He had almost reached the budget and timeframe they wanted the entire game in, and they'd only just gotten the engine completed. He believed their requests were mere suggestions from his corporate underlings, which had been the vibe they'd given just because he had been so successful in the past. But he operated based on that presumption that they'd never get in his way. He went way, way, way over the initial budget and timeframe, way over the revised budgets and timeframes, and when they told him it was time to deliver on this black hole of a project, he acted like a petulant child about it. I love Kojima's work. I love the MG and MGS series (minus Survive), and I somehow love Death Stranding even more. But a business has the right to protect themselves from a loose cannon with an untouchable complex, and we cannot blame them for that.

[@AsiaDanceScene]

Saw the title of the video, joked to my friend that half the list could probably just be EA releases, watches the video...dammit EA...

[@cppblank]

Crunch getting brought up drives me nuts. It exists in tons of professions, including ones with hard physical labor and no one says a word.

[@benjaminjohnson5414]

Next time you make something like this can we have only like 1 or 2 games screwed over by EA. Cause they are involved in almost every game on this entire list.

[@smoovychevyss6486]

This list should of been called “All The Games EA f***** up”.

[@SilverSpectre266]

You could probably add all the Star Wars games that were supposed to be coming from EA after they first inked that 10 year exclusivity deal with Disney. Not just the games, but the studios that were making them being shutdown too.

[@joeseibert256]

I can't be the only one who realized that one publisher keeps coming up it's always EA that seems to mess things up can't even play a decent sports game without them ruining it.

[@stephenconger2029]

Where is "Jurassic Park: Tresspasser?" That is THE title IMO, exemplary of the issue. The game first brought many of the features that we take for granted in games (such as physics puzzles) to the table and Seamus Blackley (eventual creator of the Xbox) was screwed over by the studio that made a deal with AMD to say that the game ran better with their processors but it had to release alongside their new ones. So a game he thought he had a couple more years to finish, he had to finish in months. The definition of done dirty, and the game had the DNA that spawned so many titles. Which is so unfair because his ideal was never fully realized, and ironic because later he got to sit and watch people finish their games using his ideas on hardware he designed.

[@geoffreydevereaux3272]

How many times does EA have to learn the same damn lesson?

[@GabePuratekuta]

They don't learn lessons.

[@eve5alpha]

i think #1 should of been BOTH Anthem & ME:Andromeda, as decisions made screwed over both games, for instance the main original team for ME:A was taken off & replaced to work on Anthem, then both teams were forced to work with the frostbyte engine on things it was never meant to do nor could ever do well, throw on about 2 dozen more bad/evil decisions & it's amazing either were worthwhile to play at all!

[@ericstelzman5190]

Let's all laugh at an industry That never learns anything, tee hee hee!

[@nothankyou818]

When the suits have too much control over the creative minds ......the whole game suffers

[@skytfox1164]

Well I think the Main thing to take away from this is…don’t trust EA with your game, though I think we all knew that anyway.

[@dwayne601]

Haze needs a remake. It has a good concept. It just needs to made the right way

[@JedForge]

Jess, you are correct about GTA online being successful with microtransactions. I think the difference between it and some of the others is that you can enjoy quite a bit without buying Shark Cards. Some stuff has cooldowns and other annoying things, but there is still a ton of fun to be had and since more stuff is solo-able, there are a fair number of ways to earn money and earn it quickly. Of course, I'm burnt out on it and don't play much anymore, but for there was a good stretch where I had a ton of fun. Many other games are designed such that you either need to group with someone (a dozen toxic people for every good person you find) or you need to fork out extra cash to truly enjoy them. And games like Madden and FIFA have had their franchise modes decline in quality while MUT and FUT make bank via microtransactions. There's a certain element of the gaming industry that are becoming for the rich and only for the rich.

[@Ortinbras]

the fact that the command and conquer series isn't on this list is a crime EA did that serries dirty it had it all, always online, microtransactions, multiplayer/esports focus, a complete and utter distain for the story and source material, cancelled titles, and now shitty mobile games aimed at the Chinese market using the name for clout

[@martinidream100]

Is that Tali Zorah behind on the right side of the shelf?! Nice

[@DarkshireWarlock]

When she mentioned how she hoped Bioware was working on Dragon Age IV "without too much publisher meddling" I felt bad. Like, you know videos like these are recorded long in advance because of editing, but comments like that make you go, "oh, so this was before the thing that's gonna upset them happened." Hope Jess took the Bioware Layoff news well...

[@inthaniak]

the deadspace 3 async features were NOT removed from the game. my mate is still trying to tell me there was no party or any nutcrackers at all, and calls me batshit crazy for seeing em ;) uh, and we neither spend a single dime on any MTS in DS3

[@powerpete4266]

Not really a publisher but remember the time the Fez creator pulled a hissy fit and cancelled the sequel?

[@thedevilsrockstxr2309]

Its almost like video game developers don't realize no matter how creative u are....if ur boss gives u a time limit then u get it done in tht timeframe...like its a job, u don't get to sit there and be like "I love games more than u boss, so whatever rules u told me don't matter 😂😂

[@Videniofthesith]

I don't remember needing any micro-transactions in the Shadow of Mordor games. Put all the micro transactions you want in a game, just don't lock stuff behind them. You want to spend real cash to unlock something easier, sure go for it. Just don't make people pay to unlock it first. Don't complain about a game that uses micro transactions to make it easier, complain about them when things are locked behind it.

[@scrappy5207]

Dead Space 3 was a masterpiece. It was still a great game and the microtransactions were OPTIONAL and didn't affect the game at allll

[@julianabandeira8122]

notice how many times jess says EA and recently bioware's letting go of 50 employees obviously affecting dragon age and mass effect.... we are NEVER getting dragon age 4 :(

[@sumpop420]

Sim City being such a travesty was great, it allowed the vastly superior cities skylines to excell in a way it wouldn't if SC had been even slightly better

[@kevingame3198]

Overwatch 2 was a disappointment no replayable PVE missions aside from story missions

[@trapsnake6]

True but there's not enough info out yet to say that that was a publisher meddling issue, a development issue or how much of both it is...

[@JerryOviedo]

I would have liked the way Dead Space 3 was supposed to be, BUT I did like the way that it actually played out. After all I would also argue that the departure to action and away from horror started in Dead Space 2. Still the whole thing with Isaac going to ships that were long since abandoned was pretty scary at times. And the hallucinations in the DLC were pretty awesome!

[@Dtgray12]

I loved midnight club dub and need for speed most wanted 06

[@drakkar33]

Misceotransacrions are for SHADOW OF WAR NOT OF MORDOR

[@cyberra0180]

Take a look at what publisher Snail Games is doing to Studio Wildcard and ARK: Survival Evolved, and in turn the entire Ark community. All in a desperate bid to milk players for as much money as they possibly can

[@kritizismmusics9737]

We can have a 100 part series of this video. I want a part 1 - 10 please

[@duaynecollins9994]

How was cyberpunk not on this list?

[@johnbuck4395]

Ugh, that was such a disaster when it first dropped

[@Silenthitman44]

Because they turned it around

[@bcleary2000]

Need for speed pro street was where it went wrong for the series, a different direction with virtually no story or fun in the races/events after that it was always a case of trying to reinvent the wheel to varying degrees of success/failure with the series.

[@Norza47]

Actually i think pro street was the last NFS with identity, yes they try something different but at least you can get that feeling of the saga, with undercover was when the saga went down and with MW2012 was when it died.

[@xxrehabrejectxx]

Little Big Planet 3 should be on this list. Sony completely sabotaged Sumo Digital by decreasing their time for development and making them develop it for both ps3 and ps4. The game is still horrrribly unstable all these years later, and caused many to turn away from the franchise.

[@johnbuck4395]

I was lucky not to have suffered the bug fest with Scarlet/Violet; i heard a lot of the nasty stories And i hate the addiction to adding microtransactions that devs seem to suffer from

[@iamthenightgoddess8226]

Consider yourself lucky... I was playing Violet recently, went into a cave, and proceeded to fall through the bottom of the earth in a continuous loop..... Still a buggy mess

[@Black_Wolf_Videos]

MGSV is when i feel my love for gaming kind of died. Especially after learning about what happened with kojima.

[@johnbuck4395]

Yeah, that was pretty f***ed up how Konami screwed one of their most iconic creators I'm surprised Kojima didn't try selling out to Disney like George Lucas

[@threadbearr8866]

We should have a society that puts people and their experiences over profits and investment portfolios.

[@Draxt-ep2us]

Anthem was the nail in the coffin for me when it came to EA... that game showed so much potential, and then we got EA garbage...

[@DPowered2]

So many good games not getting s second just because the publishers messed up the first one then said it bombed

[@cppblank]

Rare the company was a casualty of Microsoft.

[@JamailvanWestering]

Uhm according to an investigation by Jason Schrier, Anthem’s abysmal state of release wasn’t just EA’s fault. Also BioWare themselves had a hand it. There was no clear sense of an idea what the game was going to be or look like, until that first trailer dropped.

[@c87_archive]

I'm really not entirely sure where you got the info where FRD was kicked off their own game, because that's not true. I worked at FRD during Haze's development and we were never kicked off the game. Ubisoft had their own QA team along side some others that help with bugs (...the ones that were fixed lol) but it was never given to someone else.

[@Arseijo]

I hope this comment doesn’t get pushed down the comment section, I take WCG word on a lot of things but love when comments can clear up BS

[@willg3220]

Timestamps discount gameranx

[@BaronVonSlap-DeBak]

i loved singularity, the past / present mechanic was sweet.

[@melindaweixler3682]

Very cool thanks 🔥🔥🔥

[@arztje]

EA seems to ruin damn near everything.

[@paulsolis3873]

Take Conker off. MS knows they didn't own Donkey Kong 🙄

[@kevinclapson]

Sorry, TF2's issues being due to its release date will always come across as a copout. Gamers failed TF2, full stop. Gamers that always whine about wanting something different, but refuse to support anything different. TF2 delivered on every front, even standing as one of the best FPS titles to date. They even introduced DLC content people demanded, and a mode that got rid of the titular Titans to please the crybabies that didn't want to play a multilayered FPS. TF2 is a perfect case study for the primary role that consumers play in the stagnation in the AAA game marketplace.

[@PetStick]

Since most of these are EA games, why is the title of this video not "Why you should stop buying EA's crap"?

[@voidtectonic]

Dragon age four now, please

[@trapsnake6]

"Anthem doesn't feel like a bioware game, but it feels exactly like an EA game". Wow. Mind blown!

[@thedevilsrockstxr2309]

I get wht people saying but its kinda hard to tell someone paying for everything to mind their business...u are their business

[@nightmarelycanthrope2230]

Movie tie in games

[@uh.theroyalwe]

Kotor 2

[@gmanz5]

Overwatch was game of the year

[@mrrationality2213]

Shadow of Mordor had micro transactions?? Or you confusing it with shadow of war

[@gladiatorscoops4907]

......Only 10?

[@GabePuratekuta]

They can't make a part 2 without limiting the entries.

[@geofff.3343]

BioWare's dead, give it up, people. Give it up. Dragon Age 4 isn't going to be that good.

[@crow3370]

Look at Diablo 4 that should be on the list

[@Ms.Moss.]

I think the re-release of Red Dead is my most angering one in a while.

[@jamalvargas6146]

World's Scariest Police Chases Based On The tv series World's Wildest Police Videos releasing the game After Fox cancelled the show Is one thing but on PS1 as shovelware come on now and I say this as a loyal viewer of World's Wildest Police Videos loved that show

[@coreypatterson5827]

And this is why publishers should NEVER have a say in how games are made.

[@Black_Wolf_Videos]

❤❤❤❤

[@oukeith]

MGS5 gameplay is goated but the story is TRASH

[@LordRain1031]

So let me get this straight. "Microsoft" bought "Rare" and took one of their most beloved games (Conker's) and literally changed EVERYTHING that made the game sooooo great!? 🙄😒🤦‍♂️☠️🤯🔫

[@GabePuratekuta]

You spelled Banjo-Kazooie wrong.

[@-wampire_lover-9177]

God damn

[@TJ_Yonko]

Goddamit this girl is fine

[@magusxxx]

Cyan Ventures made Riven, the sequel to Myst, multiple times harder than the original. Myst was an easy going sooner-or-later you'll get it type of game. Riven made you wish you knew someone in MENSA.

[@rednecksavage2152]

I love Rebecca, dream girl