The big gaming controversies of 2023, from Harry Potter to the Iraq war game

Video games range from silly toys for babies to life-changing works of art – all an industry that brings in billions of dollars every year. Of course, the company’s endless consumerism can’t help but stir up controversy, and 2023 has had its share of milestones.

Let’s take a look back at some of the most dramatic video game controversies of the last year.

HOGWARTS LEGACY’S LEGACY PROBLEM

Hogwarts legacy was, on paper, a dream come true for players of a certain age. But thanks to Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who has repeatedly drawn ire for her views on transgender politics, the open-world adventure was controversial from the moment it was unveiled. Hence the dissatisfaction over Rowling’s connection to Hogwarts legacy simmered beneath the surface for years until it became a simmering boil when the game finally released in February 2023.

The ensuing debate was ugly and messy and consumed social media for months, although by most accounts the game didn’t have anything to offer anyone who wasn’t fully invested in Harry Potter nostalgia. Despite Hogwarts legacy Since it was one of the biggest blockbusters of the year, the controversy somehow died down after its release. The game received no nominations at the Game Awards, and by and large everyone has moved on to other, more lucrative skirmishes on the seemingly endless battlefields of the internet’s culture wars. Let’s all hope publisher Warner Bros. decided to walk away from the whole thing instead of kicking off the second round.

UNRECORD MAKES UNCOMFORTABLE COMPARISONS WITH REAL POLICE BODYCAM FOOTAGE

French developer DRAMA lived up to its name as co-founder Alexandre Spindler caused a stir on social media with just over two minutes of gameplay from the previously unknown studio’s upcoming first-person shooter Not recorded in April 2023. The video was (and honestly still is) an impressive demonstration of the power of Unreal Engine 5, which Not recorded

The team created striking, hyper-realistic graphics inspired by police bodycam footage. The visual quality far exceeded what people expected from a small developer, so the response was often “It’s a fake.”

The controversy here is not that the video was a hoax, believe it or not, but to what extent Not recordedThe lifelike images made people feel. As similar-looking footage of police officers and mass shooters shooting innocent people has become more common in recent years, many viewers have been uncomfortable with the idea of ​​an interactive video game that replicates the aesthetic of these shots. DRAMA eventually released a statement explaining this Not recorded “does not pursue foreign policy and is not inspired by real events,” but it remains a hard sell to Americans who face threats every day from their country’s law enforcement agencies.

REVIVED IN FALLUJAH FOR SIX DAYS

A video game based on the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies seemed like a bad idea when Konami first announced it Six days in Fallujah In 2009, it was surprising that someone revived the ill-advised project after 14 more years of reckoning with the abject failure and unspeakable tragedy of the so-called War on Terror.

“You can absolutely make entertainment out of contemporary scenarios,” Dutch-Egyptian developer Rami Ismail told Polygon earlier this year, “but the country that fought an illegal war is making it in collaboration with people who profited from that illegal war , a game about this illegal war.” while the humanity and environment of the people who died are wiped out and [suffered] in this illegal war while fully committing to deleting the actual history down to the store page description, it’s just not the same. This is not entertainment, this is propaganda that you have to pay for.”

New Unity fees tarnish their reputation

Unity, one of the world’s most prolific video game engines, caused a stir in September 2023 when it announced a revised pricing model that would, among other things, pay developers a fee every time a user downloads and installs a game. The decision was immediately criticized by small studios and solo artists who couldn’t keep up with these additional fees. Some developers even threatened to boycott the product entirely. It was a complete disaster for everyone involved.

While Unity attempted to reverse some of the changes and eventually replaced controversial CEO John Riccitiello, the company has not yet fully recovered from the rapid and tumultuous loss of reputation. I think now we have a better idea of ​​why Grasshopper Manufacture included: Rogue which many believe is a reference to Riccitiello Travis strikes again and then had players beat him up at the end No more heroes 3

.

The Game Awards provoke developers to create their own future class

The “biggest night in gaming” always seems to generate excitement among critics, and so does the 2023 Game Awards was no different.

But this year’s broadcast sparked even more backlash from the developers it was supposed to celebrate. In addition to the usual super-quick rattling off of multiple awards without much fanfare between elaborate commercials, the few honorees who were given time to address the audience were urged to “conclude” by an off-camera monitor in 30 seconds. This felt particularly insensitive to winners who gave heartfelt speeches about it LGBTQ+ inclusion and deceased colleagues.

Also the Game Awards came under fire by itself Future class, a group of “inspirational individuals who represent the bright, bold, and inclusive future of video games,” for not heeding pre-show calls to strongly condemn Israel’s ongoing war against Palestine. Geoff Keighley and the members of Future Class are apparently still discussing the issue, but initial silence raised questions within the industry about what the group’s goal was, beyond a superficial attempt to make the Game Awards appear more progressive.

The day before the disappointment, the developer disappears

After becoming one of the most wanted games on Steam following a promising reveal trailer two years ago, The day before dropped in early December 2023 with a sickening bang worthy of its cliched zombie premise. An avalanche of negative user reviews pilloried the open-world MMO as a bug-filled, crash-prone mess that had almost none of the promise or polish that had originally brought the project so much attention. And somehow things only got worse from there.

Less than a week later, The day before Developer Fntastic announced the closure, citing financial failures and apologizing to everyone who bought the game. On the same day, Valve withdrew The day before

from Steam as it worked with publisher Mytona to refund tens of thousands of purchases. The game’s servers will be shut down on January 22, 2024, closing the gray market that has arisen around unsold and unused keys for the game and prompting withdrawal The day before to the annals (or perhaps anals) of history.

THE RISE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

In 2023, tech-loving entrepreneurs fled a lot From the crumbling city-states of cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens to sticking with a new flashy thing: AI. Although reasonable individuals argue well that this is the case little intelligence In the current crop of so-called artificial intelligence projects, it didn’t take long for the AI ​​emissaries to become convinced that artists were a thing of the past. That didn’t go well in an industry like the video game industry, where accusations of anti-worker sentiment are commonplace.

Despite criticism of the technology, companies like Ubisoft have not shied away from developing AI tools that have the potential to take humans out of the game development process entirely. A program called Ghostwriter, which the studio announced in March 2023, will eventually help Ubisoft developers write “barks,” all those little snippets of dialogue that characters shout during action sequences and the like.

“I have no doubt that the writers currently working with the tool and adapting it to their needs enjoy using it or find it helpful,” video game writer Janine Hawkins said in a comment about Ghostwriter interview with The Verge earlier this year. “But all it takes is an executive who says, ‘Our writers can now do twice as many barks, so why do we need the same number of writers?’ so that it threatens scarce writing jobs.”

A BOOM in the gaming industry fizzles out with layoffs

For regular people who buy and play video games, 2023 may have been considered one of the greatest years in gaming, but it was also a year in which companies suffered from large investments and risky bets during the COVID-19 pandemic. And when companies lose money (or in some cases simply aren’t profitable enough), workers suffer.

Embracer Group, a Swedish conglomerate that for a while seemed to be gobbling up every mid-sized developer and publisher it could get its hands on, was hit the hardest, but was far from the only victim. Microsoft, Bethesda, 343 Industries, Bungie, Sega, Ubisoft, Epic Games, BioWare, CD Projekt, Electronic Arts, Unity, Amazon and more contributed An estimated 10,000 layoffs.

The push for unions in the industry is based on the hope that these situations could be made easier for affected workers, but they are still constrained by the need to align themselves with the economic impulses of corporations. Ultimately, how a change comes about can be in the hands of the employees involved.