Top 10 Video Games Ruined By Executive Meddling
The only thing worse than releasing a bad game is releasing a potentially good game that was ruined by businessmen who only care about demographics and release schedules. Join http://www.WatchMojo.com as we countdown our picks for the Top 10 Video Games Ruined By Executive Meddling.
For this list, we're looking at video games who's final products were drastically altered or even ruined by outside, non-developer hands during the development process.
Special Thanks to our user "Jedimperial96" for suggesting this topic on our Interactive Suggestion Tool http://www.WatchMojo.comsuggest
Script written by Noah Levy
#10: “Dragon Age II” (2011)
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A trend on this list is that publishers will often rush game developers in order to meet a deadline, and not even the legendary Bioware is immune to this. The sequel to their 2009 RPG was demanded by publisher EA to not only be finished quickly, but also try to craft the game to feel more like their prior success Mass Effect. This led to lead designer Brent Knowles leaving during pre-production, and the game being regarded as the weakest in the series. It was still considered to be a passable game, but nowhere near as good had EA let Bioware work their magic.
#9: “Assassin’s Creed: Unity” (2014)
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The problem with transitioning between console generations is that developers have to satisfy the large install base of the old consoles while providing experiences that will sell the new technology and convert new fans. Unfortunately, this could lead to resources begin split among projects, which is what happened to the Assassin’s Creed franchise in 2014. Instead of focusing on one experience for all consoles, Ubisoft decided to split the team for between the next-gen Unity the last-gen Rogue. As a result, Unity launched with an assortment of infamous bugs and glitches that hampered the overall experience, leaving gamers with a sour taste with the series overall.
#8: “Star Fox Adventures” (2002)
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Rare’s last project for Nintendo before being bought by Microsoft began life as an adventure game for the N64 called Dinosaur Planet. But when Shigeru Miyamoto noticed the lead character looked like Fox McCloud, he ordered the game to be reworked for the Gamecube part of their Star Fox franchise instead. Unfortunately the extra development time needed to change the game had an unforeseen consequence, thanks to the aforementioned Microsoft buyout. This forced a lot of content from the game to be cut to make the final deadline, including the game’s planned Final Boss. Perhaps the game’s biggest crime was causing such a successful partnership to end on such a disappointing note.
#7: “Sonic The Hedgehog” (2006)
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This was supposed to be Sonic’s big 15th anniversary comeback on next-gen hardware but boy did Sega screwed things up big time. Not only did they split the development team in half to make this game and Sonic and The Secret Rings, but what team was left was given a really thin deadline to make the anniversary release date. I’m sure you all know the results by now about how awful and basically unfinished this game was; how its erratic camera, unfathomably sloppy controls and absolutely ludicrous story completely crashed Sonic’s legacy.
#6: “Resident Evil 6” (2012)
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Now here’s a game with a horrific identity problem. While previous installments gradually kept moving away from the series' roots, Producer Masachika Kawata even stated that their goal with RE6 was to try to attract fans of fast-paced action games like Call of Duty. Because of this, the game features four different campaigns with varying gameplay styles, almost none of them resembling the survival horror tone that the franchise was once known for. Instead, Capcom turned their flagship franchise into a third person shooter where everything goes boom.
#5: “Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness” (2003)
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Despite being one of the most well-known female characters in gaming, Lara Croft was struggling to keep up with the times when she made her long awaited PS2 debut in 2003. Core Design set out to drastically redesign the series, but publisher Eidos Interactive did a lot of focus testing and Lara's new adventure was riddled with poorly implemented features. Among these 'features' were out of place stealth sections, broken hand-to-hand combat and a second playable character, Kurtis Trent. In order to get the game out in time to benefit from the marketing of the 2nd Tomb Raider film, the game was rushed and released incomplete, leaving Lara once again buried in a tomb until the next reboot.
#4: “Lair” (2007)
Take Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, replace X-Wings with Dragons, and you’d have a recipe for an amazing early PS3 game, right? Well, Sony didn’t exactly think so, as they made developer Factor 5 shoehorn Sixaxis motion control as the only control option in the game to showcase their new technology. While controlling the beasts with your controller sounds cool in concept, problems with the motion control technology made what would have been an otherwise acceptable game unplayable. Factor 5 eventually released a patch that added analog stick support, but the damage had be done, as the game’s failure forced them to shut their doors in 2009.
#3: “Fuse” (2013)
What could ever lead to Ratchet and Clank developer Insomniac Games being called uncreative? They made some of the most beloved games for the Playstaiton systems, and wanted to bring their lighthearted humorous style to their first multi-platform game, then called Overstrike. But then EA came in and told the developer to shift the style of the shooter from light-hearted and fun, to a dark and serious tone that most associate with the genre. Because of this, Insomniac ended up releasing a co-op shooter that’s as generic as they come with no distinct style and was promptly forgotten.
#2: “SimCity” (2013)
In this day and age, the topic of games and systems requiring an online connection at all times just to be able to play them is a hot button issue for gamers. But the “Always online” debate reached a tipping point when EA required developer Maxis to require an net connection just to play. Because of this, the sixth installment of the city building sim experienced an absolute disaster of a launch where network outages and game crashes ran abundant. EA’s handling of this game was like watching a tornado touching down in one of our virtual cities.
Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few dishonorable mentions:
-“Perfect Dark Zero” (2005)
Rushed to completion on prototype dev kits.
-“Mortal Kombat” (SNES) (1993)
Blood and Fatalities Censored
-“Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords” (2004)
Rushed deadline resulting in an abrupt ending
#1: “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982)
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Whatever outside interferences the above games may have had, at least they don’t have the honor of bringing an entire industry to near extinction. Atari bought the rights to the classic Spielberg movie in July 1982, and gave game designer Howard Scott Warshaw the unimaginable task of creating the entire game in just six weeks. Oh and did we mention the game was Atari’s flagship title that holiday? We don’t have to tell you how this one ended. Atari’s order resulted in one of the worst games of all time, and ended with a landfill full of unsold cartridges in the New Mexico desert.
Do you agree with our list? What games do you with executives kept their hands off? For more authentic top tens posted every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
