Another Top 10 Shocking Video Game Controversies

Despite evidence linking games and real-life violence being contradictory at best, controversy is never far behind any Rockstar release as politicians and other activists rightly raise their concerns. Glorification of bullying was the target this time as one man labeled the school-based title a “Columbine simulator”. Calls for bans were widespread – even being put into effect in Brazil – yet regular gamers were content to wait until it was released before adding their voice. The final product certainly contains fighting don’t get us wrong, yet is only legitimized when standing up to a bully, with any other serial misbehavior strictly punished. Many still couldn’t be satisfied however, as players accused them of remaining intentionally blind to the game’s considerable creative achievements.

This debacle began in 2014 when YouTube Personality Jim Sterling, released a scathing review of Digital Homicide’s FPS, The Slaughtering Grounds, a standard procedure for many YouTube personalities. Instead of taking his criticism constructively, the company abusively fired back before filing $15 Million lawsuit against Sterling for slander, which of course this opened the floodgates of backlash from Steam Reviewers. So what does Digital Homicide do in response? File another lawsuit against 100 anonymous users while also requesting a subpoena to reveal their personal information. This in turn lead to Steam removing all of Digital Homicide’s games from their online store, now without a means of income, the company had to drop the latter case. Bet you guys regret digging the hole that deep.

It might have been resolved as quickly as it blew up, but for four tumultuous days, gamers sure were riled up. Put into force by Valve and Bethesda, the concept in its rawest form would afford creators the freedom to make a living out of something previously just a donation-supported hobby. However, the idea was flawed on launch and soon got torn apart by irate Skyrim players. Copyright and pricing issues ran rampant while many felt the 25/75% revenue split favoring the developer would allow them to release subpar games reliant on cheap mod fixes. It might have spat in the face of the essence of modding culture, but at least Valve weren’t too stubborn to ignore player feedback.

There may be a time when always-on and all-digital features are the norm, and in that sense Microsoft were ahead of their time, however the new features that were being touted seemed far to drastic for the average consumer. Microsoft’s new policy required that the Console always needed to be online, while at the same time providing a convoluted system for how to share games with friends or sell them used. Sony capitalized on this outrage at their E3 2013 presentation in spectacular fashion, winning over most of the gaming community and forcing Microsoft to backtrack on these limitations, but the damage was done and the predicted console war became a console massacre.

Nintendo and the YouTube community haven’t got along ever since the legendary company removed monetized videos featuring their intellectual property, some saying they abused YouTube’s notoriously exploitable copyright system in the process. That relationship deteriorated further upon the announcement of Nintendo’s own scheme allowing creators to use whitelisted games as long as you give them 40% of the revenue. Compared to other development companies who embrace the free exposure huge personalities give their games, Nintendo showed they wanted a slice of the pie while maintaining sway to monitor what was said about their assets. Nintendo argued this was to protect their brand, but major Youtube personalities, including PewDiePie have stated that just: won’t showcase Nintendo’s games.
1:05 explains how people can easily just fake being a copyright holder

YouTube personalities can engage with their audience in a fashion the usual gaming press can never achieve, the personal nature of their content making them ideal vehicles for promoting certain products. A great form of marketing in theory, but it becomes problematic when what they can say is contractually controlled and the figure in question doesn’t disclose the fact that it’s sponsored. Terms from a marketing firm representing this action-adventure title – Plaid Social - contained such limitations, asserting that no bugs can be shown and viewers must be positively encouraged to make a purchase. Several YouTubers who accepted the offer said such stipulations were negotiable, but others denounced it as a shady method of manipulating public impression by exploiting the platform’s independent perception. The irony of it all was that Shadow of Mordor kicked ass and didn’t need this to begin with – although the backlash would have definitely been worse if it had turned out to be hot garbage.

This space-based survival title was one of the most hyped games ever for one reason: Sean Murray and his extravagant promises. Whether his claims constitute a deliberate attempt to mislead consumers or are simply reckless optimism from a small, inexperienced developer is incredibly difficult to ascertain. Part of the problem is Hello Games’ relative silence in response to player’s complaints about missing features and numerous glitches, allowing those same commenters to dominate the conversation, therefore forming a narrative without one side of the story. Until the company speak up, any words defending them are purely speculative: we can only hope that the absence of discussion means they are working on delivering the game players had envisioned before it’s too late.

First exposed by a YouTuber named HonorTheCall, YouTube personalities: TmarTn and ProSyndicate are alleged to have hidden their ownership of a skin gambling site while promoting it to their partly underage audience, potentially having the power to rig the betting videos they made. Instead of remaining tight-lipped, TmarTn insincerely apologized; stating his ownership of the company was on the public record, but this only served to worsen public opinion towards them. FTC regulations require clear disclosure in order to avoid deceptive advertising, although as another video from H3h3productions showed, that wasn’t always the case.

You might not know the messy details but you’ve no doubt heard about this tale that is synonymous with the questionable ethics many feel pervade gaming journalism. After Gerstmann’s non-disclosure agreement ended in 2012, we finally got a satisfying conclusion to the five-year-old rumors: following Gerstmann’s mediocre reviews of games like Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, unhappy publishers such as Eidos and Sony threatened to withdraw funds they paid to promote on GameSpot. Under this pressure, the site’s inexperienced advertising team crumpled and showed Gerstmann the door. Despite many still writing such situations off as a tolerated reality in the field, the majority supported the long-serving journalist for retaining his sincerity even as others criticize him for his divisive views.

Before we reveal our top pick, let’s take a look at some honorable mentions.

Capcom’s Disc-Locked Content For Street Fighter X Tekken

Polaris-Mountain Dew Game Jam

Watch Dogs’ Graphical Downgrade

As one of video game development’s true visionary icons, Konami couldn’t have picked a worse person to allegedly treat poorly, particularly as they move to an unpopular “mobile first” orientation. Speculation about Kojima’s position in the company began when his name was taken off The Phantom Pain branding in March 2015, and in the months after fans pieced together vague information pointing towards his imminent departure. Kojima’s three-decade tenure at the company was officially ended in December of that year, rumors indicating that Konami had grown tired of his lavish development budgets. Although there’s still shade being thrown by both sides – Konami banned him from attending The Game Awards so Kojima drank their tears – the split was best for everyone involved.

Do you agree with our list? Which gaming controversies did you follow closely? If you didn’t see a topic you thought should be on here, be sure to check out our first list on the Top 10 Video Game Controversies and for more controversial top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.