2017 was a great year for the gaming industry with Sony enjoying the lion’s share of sales, and gamers enjoying some fantastic PS4 games. However, not everything went according to plan. Join us as we take a look at some of the most shocking gaming controversies of 2017.
Marvel Heroes Omega taken offline
Marvel Heroes Omega had stunning potential. Gazillion Entertainment secured the Marvel license and worked alongside Warner Bros to create an MMO featuring all our favorite characters from the universe. However, internally things were exploding, and just a few months after launch the plug was pulled taking the game offline.
According to one employee, the console versions just weren't bringing in the cash via the in-game microtransactions, and promises that the studio made to fans for future updates didn't materialize.
Marvel revoked the license, all employees were sacked the day before Thanksgiving, and many gamers who had bought items in-game were refunded. There's much more to this story, but the truth may never be known.
Mass Effect Andromeda looks awful
The characters of Mass Effect Andromeda became viral memes. On release, Bioware’s action role-playing game was the laughing stock of the gaming community due to some hilariously robotic facial animations and character models. Despite receiving average reviews from critics, players slated it with over 3,000 user reviews giving the highly-anticipated sci-fi adventure an average score of 4.8/10.
Alongside poor animation, the game was plagued with technical problems and Mass Effect Andromeda was far from being the complete product at launch. Despite numerous patches that helped to polish the game up post-launch, the game will long be remembered for its launch week drama. As a result of what sounded like a painful development process, future Mass Effect games have been shelved.
Visceral Games shutdown
EA shutdown its Vancouver studio, Visceral Games, in 2017. The studio had been behind some huge franchises, including Dead Space and Battlefield Hardline, and were working on a new Star Wars game. It's presumed that the new Star Wars project encountered problems, and on announcing the closure of Visceral, EA said that it's making “significant changes” from the original vision of the game. Visceral Games has an illustrious history in game development spanning back to 1998 when it was founded by EA Redwood Shores. The studio has been the brains behind over 25 games, and its doors shutting were a shock to many. Thankfully, it seems that many of its staff have now been employed at other EA studios.
EA Star Wars Battlefront loot crates
Electronic Arts were the subject of further controversy in 2017 with the release of Star Wars Battlefront 2. The company's handling of microtransactions, most significantly loot boxes, became national headlines and his since sparked investigation into the practices of other games that use loot crates.
The drama began following the Star Wars Battlefront 2 beta in October, where player feedback was extremely negative. The issue surrounded the progression system which players felt seemed unbalanced and heavily stacked towards encouraging them to buy loot crates to reach the higher levels.
Such was the outburst of negativity, EA back-tracked, removed loot crates for a time, and tweaked the progression system to make it fairer. However, the impact had already been catastrophic with many critics knocking points of their review scores based on the microtransactions. The game subsequently came under scrutiny for mainstream press and even the Belgian Gaming Commission for the possible inclusion of unfair gambling practices.
In December, it was revealed that Star Wars Battlefront 2 sales were way behind original forecasts.
Detroit Become: Human gets attacked
A year doesn't go by in the videogames industry without a burst of mainstream press drama over violence. 2017 was no exception with Detroit: Become Human bearing the brunt of the backlash. The scene that caused an uproar featured domestic violence, showing a father beating his 10-year old daughter. Childline even got involved to express their disgust, and the NSPCC branded it as ‘unacceptable'. Even UK MP's hit out at Quantic Dream's David Cage for the games' Paris Games Week trailer.
Cage defended the scene saying: “Would I be doing my job as a creator if I was making the game you want me to make? I don’t think so – I’m creating something that I find moving and meaningful. And I think people should see the scene, play the game and see it in context to really understand it. The rule I give myself is to never glorify violence, to never do anything gratuitous. It has to have a purpose, have a meaning, and create something that is hopefully meaningful for people.” If anything, it drew more interest from gamers keen to know exactly why people were so shocked.
