10 Video Games That Changed Gaming For The WORSE

10 Games That Changed the Industry for the Worse

Welcome to MojoPlays and unfortunately not every video game can have a positive impact on the industry as you’ll see in the list ahead. We’re not saying these are bad games in any way, just that publishers and developers learned the wrong lessons from their impact.

“The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” (2006)

This was probably the beginning of the end for single player games being marked safe from the dreaded microtransactions of the industry. For $2.50, players could buy armor for their horse, a cosmetic that added absolutely nothing to the experience and wasn’t even something that could be shown off as once again, Oblivion is a single player game. While relatively harmless compared to what we suffer through today, players nonetheless balked at the price tag for a simple cosmetic item. Bethesda followed this up with many more substantial updates that were well worth the asking price, but the damage had already been done, and now we are inundated with endless streams of cosmetics, armor sets, color palettes, and grossly overpriced DLC packs. Thanks Bethesda! You managed to glitch the entire industry!

“The Last of Us” (2013)

Naughty Dog have understandably become one of Sony’s premiere developers with the likes of Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter and Uncharted becoming icons of PlayStation. However, it was with the PS3’s swan song that everything within Sony’s internal development began to change. There’s no denying that The Last of Us is a masterpiece of writing, characters, and acting, and rightfully deserves all the praise and awards it has received. However, once Sony got a taste of this critical acclaim, nearly every single release out of Sony’s first party developers began to take on a similar tone and aesthetic. Gone were the days of experimental and original games, replaced by numerous cinematic and mature “crevice crawlers”. This shift in tone and development has undoubtedly led to some incredible games, but the impact of The Last of Us was so big it changed not only Sony’s output going forward, but the entire single player industry.

“Overwatch” (2016)

It cannot be overstated what a big deal Overwatch was when it released back in 2016. The first new franchise from Blizzard in years, Overwatch gave players a twist on the competitive multiplayer genre, focusing on individual heroes and their unique abilities working in tandem. After Overwatch’s unprecedented success, suddenly every major multiplayer game started introducing “heroes” to their shooters, beginning an endless wave of copycat clones desperate for some of that Overwatch attention and sales. However, not even Overwatch is what Overwatch used to be anymore with its sequel nothing more than a 1.1 update on the original and every subsequent clone has ended in miserable failure. Yeah, I’m talking about you, Concord. Even almost a decade later, developers are still wasting time, money and resources chasing that Overwatch clout that not even Blizzard themselves could replicate.

“The Sims” (2000)

SimCity proved to be a surprise hit with its city building infrastructure and maintenance gameplay, but NO ONE could have predicted just how big its spin-off focused on the people who lived in those cities would become. An overnight success, millions became enamored with raising their little Sim families and maintaining their day-to-day lives. With the ability to customize everything about your Sim and their lives, the possibilities of this second-life sim were almost endless. And EA, not wanting to let a good thing go to waste, set about releasing endless waves of expansions full of cosmetics, seasonal events, and even pets, giving EA an almost unending stream of revenue. And the industry took notice. Now content drops have become a regular and costly event with varying results of absurdity, (the DOA series will never be the same), and sadly it is something we’ve just come to accept as the new normal in gaming.

“FIFA 09” (2008)

EA strikes again and this is arguably a much more egregious offense. The FIFA series alongside Madden are some of EA’s most profitable franchises, but with FIFA ‘09, EA decided they weren’t making enough already. With the game’s Ultimate Team Mode, players could build their ideal team composed of their favorite players using Card Packs that could be purchased for in-game or real-world money. Here’s the thing though, players would have no idea which cards they would get in these blind packs, incentivizing them to continue to purchase more to create their ultimate fantasy team. This practice was so successful, EA began implementing it in so many games to such a degree that the government had to get involved as the practice bordered on gambling. This repercussion of course hasn’t stopped other publishers from incorporating equally scummy practices in their games and loot boxes today have unfortunately become as common as microtransactions.

“GTA Online” (2013)

Speaking of egregious, we move onto GTA Online. Originally just an extra multiplayer mode for GTA V, GTA Online took on a life of its own and not only killed any plans for single player DLC for the main game, but also took so many resources from the once prolific developer, that we’ve only received one brand new game in a decade along with numerous re-releases of GTA V. The addition of Shark Card microtransactions has made GTA Online one of the most profitable online services of all time. While we can’t fault Rockstar as the developer has updated GTA Online with a constant rollout of patches, updates, and events to keep their millions of players happy and entertained, the death of what was once one of the most consistently solid single player developers makes the wait for GTA6 and potentially anything new from the studio an agonizingly long one.

“Far Cry 3” (2012)

While it wouldn’t be difficult to point to the original Assassin’s Creed for birthing the patented “Ubisoft Formula”, it was Far Cry 3 that perfected it and made it the standard for all Ubisoft games going forward. This adaptation of using towers to clear the map along with endless icons populating these maps spread like a disease and effectively killed any and all creativity within the company. And yet, despite outcry and mockery from the gaming community, this formula has managed to permeate its way into almost every open world game since Far Cry 3 in one form or another. Thankfully, many devs, including Ubisoft itself have FINALLY begun moving away from the dreaded Ubisoft formula, but gamers have had to suffer through over a decade until some fresh innovation was introduced to the open world sandbox.

“Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” (2007)

Where developers once strived to develop the “Halo Killer”, the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare completely changed not only the multiplayer landscape but publisher Activision as well. The unexpected success of Infinity Ward leaving the WWII setting behind prompted a slew of other gritty modern day militaristic shooters and the financial windfall made COD one of Activision’s biggest IPs. So much so that no other projects seemed to have the same priority moving forward. While Activision would still publish more titles in the years after Modern Warfare’s release, the creative output slowed significantly as Activision continuously either closed studios under their umbrella or shifted them to work on the Call of Duty machine. To date, it would be hard to pinpoint a bigger creative vacuum in the industry than after Activision went all in on Call of Duty and gaming has only suffered because of it.

“Destiny” (2014)

Ah we’ve finally reached it, the birthplace of the much derided “live service” game we’re endlessly subjected to. After leaving the world of Halo behind, Bungie set out on a bold new venture that would have dire ramifications for the entire industry. Once championed as an innovative new approach to gaming, it was once again latched onto and tainted by greedy publishers looking for ways to maintain a continuous revenue stream. And so began the deluge of “live service” titles, oftentimes filled to the brim with egregious microtransactions just to add fuel to the fire. Despite millions of dollars spent trying to replicate Destiny’s initial success, most of these endeavors have not only failed to find audiences but also lost their companies millions more. Even Destiny itself can’t recapture that initial spark that started the wildfire and Destiny as well as Bungie itself could be living on borrowed time.

“Fortnite” (2017)

And just as bad as the “live service” model, we have Fortnite, whose success can be attributed to aping someone else’s idea. Originally a tower defense game, no one much cared about Fortnite until they adopted their building mechanics into the battle royale formula after the success of PUBG. Not only responsible for the influx of battle royale games, Fortnite also popularized the battle pass, as well as seasons in which the game would be updated with new mechanics, cosmetics and changes to the arena. Fortnite’s success was so profound it even influenced Call of Duty and led Activision to create Warzone, adopting many of Fortnite’s mechanics, complete with celebrity cross promotions that made little to no sense. Another genre that thankfully seems to have run its course, but as Fortnite continues to evolve to remain relevant, it likely won’t be long before we see more of their ideas appear throughout the industry.

Which video game do you feel negatively affected all of gaming? Share your picks in the comments below.