10 Video Game Companies That Lost Their Way

10 Game Companies That Lost Their Way

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at 10 game companies who have sadly lost what made them great.

Square Enix

Square Enix has been a bit of a mixed bag over the last several years. If you only play the games that their internal teams develop like “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth”, then you probably haven’t had too many issues with their habits. However, die-hard Square Enix fans have had it rough. The publisher has seen a plethora of mismanagement problems between making Crystal Dynamics turn “Avengers” into a live service and releasing new JRPGs within weeks of each other - seriously, we saw several titles between late 2022 and early 2023 one after another. The scramble for immediate cash has just caused Square Enix’s products to basically compete against each other, which has only divided players and revenue even further. Where is the thought behind these decisions? Perhaps the newly appointed CEO, Takashi Kiryu, can turn things around, but the vocal advocacy for AI usage in developing games has us deeply concerned.

Bungie

For a while, it seemed as if Bungie was on top of the world. Not everything has been rainbows and sunshine since buying themselves out of Activision Blizzard. Unfortunately, a lot of goodwill was lost in 2023. The “Lightfall” expansion for “Destiny 2” was not what players were hoping for. What really deflated and angered fans was when Bungie went through a sizable round of layoffs. In October 2023, Bungie laid off around one hundred staff members from across all departments including talent that had been with the company since the very beginning. What made the whole situation worse was that these layoffs occurred days before staff were to receive their cut from Sony’s purchase of the company. At the time of the acquisition, Sony had even forked over an extra $1.2 billion for staff members to not leave. Since these events, those inside of Bungie have spoken to outside sources about the troubles occurring within the studio, and it is not a pretty picture.

Crystal Dynamics

We wouldn’t blame Crystal Dynamics at all for what happened with “Avengers”. No, what’s burned folks the most is how the studio has handled the “Tomb Raider” franchise, particularly when it comes to depicting Lara Croft. We can understand some of the problems in how Lara was sexualized, but that issue was committed by some of the marketing teams for the truly awful “Tomb Raider” games. For some reason, Crystal Dynamics seems as if it’s trying to right wrongs that never happened. Back when the studio was working on the 2013 reboot, there was this weird “adversity is sexy” approach that made the game feel weirdly perverted in some areas. Even with that mishap behind them, their antics after being snatched up by Embracer Group has not filled us with confidence.

GameFreak

We’re not quite sure what happened after the 3DS years, but man, GameFreak has been fumbling the ball on “Pokemon” for quite some time now. It’s gotten to the point where indie devs have been eating the bigger company’s lunch now with hits like “Temtem”, “Palworld”, “Cassette Beasts”, and many others. From the disastrous launch of “Pokemon Sword and Shield” to the even more catastrophic bugfest that was “Violet and Scarlet”, GameFreak just hasn’t been able to put out a quality “Pokemon” title and has failed to evolve in the ways fans have been begging for years now. They struck gold with “Pokemon Legends: Arceus” at least. Maybe the sequel to that will be the new direction for the IP in the video game space.

BioWare

The previous generation was really rough for BioWare. “Mass Effect: Andromeda” was already a mess when it first launched in 2017. You can’t rely on that “BioWare magic” forever. And yet they did during the development of “Anthem”, which was a trainwreck when it released in 2019. We’re honestly shocked that Electronic Arts didn’t shutter the studio. BioWare has been toiling away at the next “Dragon Age” game and a proper “Mass Effect 4” for some time. Question is with so many of BioWare’s original staff members gone, is there even a shred of the DNA remaining? Seeing how leaked gameplay shows “God of War”-esque combat, we can’t help but wonder what’s going on over there.

Warner Bros. Games

Ever since Warner Bros. was acquired by AT&T, in 2022, it’s felt like Warner Bros. Games has been on a downward spiral. Sure, we got a smash hit in “Hogwarts Legacy”, but the same cannot be said for “Gotham Knights” nor “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League”. For some unknown reason, WB Games has been pursuing the live service model despite so many titles from its competitors failing miserably. Even more confusing is the company’s stance after taking a massive loss of two hundred million dollars, “Suicide Squad” being a major contributor to that loss. Shortly after the game’s launch, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslov announced plans to double-down on developing games with live service models. Oof.

Limited Run Games

Limited Run Games used to be a purveyor in games preservation, the top choice in getting physical copies of beloved indie games and exclusive merchandise of those games. Unfortunately, that cannot be said these days. Customers have frequently complained about how long they have to wait before orders arrive, most cases taking over a year or two to be fulfilled. Then, you have sources telling YouTubers how LRG allegedly creates false scarcity by simply refusing to print more games when they have the money and capital to print more copies than they’re willing to. And not too long before we put this video out, LRG came under fire for some copies of games being printed on CD-ROM discs instead of blu-ray discs. And that’s all without mentioning the time they fired one of their own simply because she was excited to play “Hogwarts Legacy”. What happened?

Konami

Ever since Konami’s falling out with famed game designer Hideo Kojima, the company has been relentlessly mocked by most of the gaming community. In its defense, leadership has changed since 2015. Developing pachinko machines and medical tech is still a massive part of their revenue, but in the gaming space, Konami’s quality in output has seen an even more drastic, more alarming change. “Metal Gear” is basically dead since that god awful “Survive” spin-off, and the “Master Collection” didn’t do any of the original games justice. “Castlevania” fans are left desperate for a sequel as more TV series and DLC crossover deals get greenlit. And for “Silent Hill” fans, well, two bad games with a possible third does not give us much confidence in Konami’s attempts to resurrect the IP. Licensing out your legendary IPs is a smart move for a company like Konami. Atari has been doing the same thing recently. But the difference between the two is that Atari is finding excellent partners to work with, smaller studios with new ideas who could use the experience to build portfolios. What has Konami done? Remakes, remasters, DLC crossovers, a bad freebie, and a massive misfire in making an interactive streaming game.

Activision Blizzard

In the late 2010s, there was already a group of people getting sick of Activision Blizzard’s crap. From “Call of Duty’s” annual releases to Blizzard botching “Overwatch’s” live service potential and shuttering of “Heroes of the Storm”, the conglomerate was losing fans. Then, the 2020’s hit. Workplace harassment, absorbing studios into the “Call of Duty” coal mines, and a suite dedicated to disgraced comedian Bill Cosby all led to more and more people abandoning anything with the names “Activision” or “Blizzard”. As soon as the company was acquired by Microsoft, several developers both former and current spoke out against their former CEO, Bobby Kotick, citing numerous times where Kotick forced devs to integrate microtransactions and online-only policies into games that didn’t need it. We want to believe the company could be on the up and up, but our final entry may get in the way of that.

Xbox

Ever heard the phrase “all that glitters is not gold”? This is a lesson that Xbox has had a hard time learning ever since the Xbox One reveal in 2013. Marketing to the wrong demographic is one thing. Spending sprees in hope of monumental revenue gain is another. There have been so many screw-ups that it’s almost hard to decide where to begin. The acquisition of Bethesda and its studios, the failure to make Game Pass profitable instead of “sustainable”, the closure of Tango Gameworks, the botched launch of “Halo: Infinite” on the franchise’s twentieth anniversary, the constant hypocrisy between PR talk and its actions - all of this has led to players villainizing Xbox. Why own the box if there is clearly a belief in failing upward? For some, it’s almost no different to when SEGA eventually left the console market after the Dreamcast’s failure.

Which game company do you feel needs to get their act together? Let us know down in the comments (in a civil manner), and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday.