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The MMNTech GOTY Awards 2019: Biggest Disappointments
Twas the month before Christmas, and all through MMNTech, disappointing games, made me want to go blech. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas, would’t put any of these there.
The “had to wear Aunt Clara’s bunny pajamas” award goes to…
Pokemon Sword & Shield (Game Freak/Nintendo)
How could a Pokemon game possibly be controversial? That’s a great question that it seems a lot of Pokemon fans would like an answer to, because they’re not getting one from Game Freak.
The whole kerfuffle started earlier this year when Game Freak announced they would be removing the National Dex from their upcoming manline title: Pokemon Sword and Shield. If you’re not a dedicated Poke fan, every single game adds new creatures to its roster, but has also kept all other creatures from previous games. Many long time fans, especially competitive players, have actually used their buddies for over a decade now. However, many of them weren’t too happy when they found out their favourite monster might not make the cut.
Game Freak’s justification for cutting the roster in half was they were planing to do all new high detail models for the Switch version. Since the list had ballooned to 890 creatures from its original 151, it was simple too much work to try and do them all. Which does seem reasonable. Then the game came out.
Rather than high detail models, data miners were able to determine that Game Freak had simply recycled Pokemon assets from the 3DS games. Games which featured all 809 monsters that weren’t new to Sword & Shield. So there was no reason not to include them. On top of that, the rest of the game’s graphics looked barely a step up from its predecessors. Certainly a far cry from other Switch titles with much smaller budgets.
Shortly there after, #GameFreakLied started trending on Twitter. It’s not clear whether they actually did fib, or whether it was a translation error from Japanese to English, but fans were still steaming mad. Many accused Game Freak of pushing the game out before it was ready, so they could make the lucrative Christmas sales window. Which certainly isn’t a first for the video games industry. Though it is uncharacteristic for such an important Nintendo franchise.
I guess every popular series has a black Woloo, but it seems Pokemon’s visit to jolly old England is turning out to be more a journey East London than it is to Victory Road.
The “Hallelujah, holy S—” Award goes to….
Anthem (EA Games/BioWare)
It’s become painfully clear that the BioWare that gave us Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Knights of the Old Republic is no more. What remains is a husk of its former self, a shambling zombie with no clear direction on what it’s doing.
Anthem was BioWare’s foray into the “live service” loot genre. Something which the the company has absolutely no experience with. Though I guess EA is mandating that every game now must be a vehicle to sell micro-transactions, and single player role playing titles just don’t fit the bill. Well, that’s par for the course, but did the game at least try to be good?
No, no it didn’t. Anthem was heavily criticized for being a tedious mess that lacked content or any real purpose. One reviewer called it boring, repetitive, and shallow. Seems like a lot of players agreed. While EA has not released exact sales numbers, it’s reported to have fallen below their expectations of 6 million copies. Which really isn’t that much for a big budget Triple A game. The company was also reportedly having issues with keeping people engaged, with active online player counts reportedly dropping rapidly not long after launch.
This marked the second bomb for BioWare in as many years. Mass Effect: Andromeda topped our most disappointing list back in 2017, after becoming a financial failure. So much for their big comeback. To top it all off though, and here’s the kicker, beyond being a rather dull experience, the game released broken as well. So broken that it was reportedly bricking PS4 consoles.
Despite it all though, at least BioWare is still chugging at it. News leaked out in November that they were planning a complete overhaul of Anthem. If they can manage resurrect a game that was already DOA, they’d make Dr. Frankenstein himself jealous.
The “got my Red Ryder BB Gun and immediately shot my eye out” Award goes to…
The Epic Games Store (Epic Games)
Yar har mateys. Know what gets PC gamers back on the high seas again? Yet another launcher, and this time one that steals games from other, better platforms.
The Epic Games Store launched late last year to tepid reception from the PC community. It was inferior Steam and GOG in almost every single way. Heck, it made even Origin and Uplay look good by comparison. Dodgy return policy, lack of cloud saves, frequent security issues, and a data mining scandal plagued the platform’s launch. All that would enough to keep you away. But if it just ended there, it wouldn’t be quite enough to make it on our biggest disappointments list.
No, Epic decided to spend some of that sweet, sweet communist money they got from Tencent for exclusive games. Avaricious publishers were more than happy to oblige in order to get that beefier 88% cut and up front payola. Big, anticipated titles like Metro Exodus and the Outer Worlds quickly announced they had signed on to exclusivity deals. So did a plethora of indie devs. It’s worth noting that Valve’s 30% cut, which developers claimed was greedy, is actually the industry standard. It’s also what pays for the platform to actually be, you know, good. Or at least functional.
If there’s nothing that drives the PCMR crowd nuts, its exclusives. That’s one of the big reasons they dislike consoles. On top of that, they were now forced to contend with a shoddy store and online service that makes Steam circa 2009 look great. There’s no shortage of complaints on PC gaming message boards about EGS. It’s now become a selling point if a game isn’t exclusive to the store.
So far Epic is still struggling to add many basic features which had been promised months ago. So it’s a win for publishers, and a loss for gamers trying to maintain their sanity.
And the “winner” of the most disappointing game thing of 2019 goes to…
Hearthstone, and Activision-Blizzard’s kowtowing to China
EA has long been considered the most anti-consumer video game company. But this year, Activision-Blizzard have declared that Andrew Wilson and Co are still playing in the minor leagues, while they themselves have moved onto the majors. The new rookie of the year among the greats of greed.
In October, the company banned Hearthstone grandmaster “Blitzchung”, and revoked all his financial winnings, for voicing his support for the Hong Kong protesters on a live stream.
For those who are not aware, citizens have been fighting against the Chinese communist government’s attempts to muscle into the region. Protesters want human rights guarantees and the elimination of an extradition deal, while some are even calling for independence. Hong Kong was a British colony before being returned to Communist China in 1999. It’s status has been in contention ever since.
In recent years, Western video game companies have been looking to expand into the Chinese market. Activision is no exception. And it seems they’re willing to do whatever it takes to make their new communist overlords happy.
Following Blitzchung’s comments and subsequent banning, Blizzard posted a grovelling apology to the Chinese government on their official Weibo page. The move sparked outrage across the gaming community. People on both sides of the political spectrum accused them of throwing away fundamental freedoms in order to protect their financial interests in China. Many called for a boycott, while even Blizzard’s own employees staged walkouts.
Others expressed concern about Chinese communist ideology infecting Western corporations who are looking to do business in the country. This eventually prompted members of the United States Congress to get involved. A bipartisan group issued a letter to the company, expressing their concerns and asking for the ban to be revoked. Even Epic CEO and perennial douche nozzle Tim Sweeney weighed in, condemning Blizzard for their actions. Though let us not forget that Epic is minority owned by Chinese mega firm Tencent, who is believed to have their own direct ties to the Communist Party.
For their part, Blizzard stayed quiet. The ban length was eventually reduced, and part of Blizchung’s earnings were returned. However, the company continued to ban others who showed support for Hong Kong on their live streams. They later posted the usual PR non-apology on their corporate site to try and mend fences, while still doubling down that this sort of speech would face repercussions.
It seems Activision-Blizzard has set a new low for corporate greed. The irony of capitalists kowtowing to communism is not lost on me. Robot Santa needs to shove coal so far up their stocking, they’ll be coughing up diamonds.
