It's been an incredible few weeks for game companies making avoidable mistakes they immediately back down from

Gaming IndustryHelldivers 2It’s been an incredible few weeks for game companies making avoidable mistakes they immediately back down fromWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Arrowhead Games)

The Super Earth Spokesperson in Helldivers 2 looks very confused as a massive explosion rocks the earth behind him.

Maybe, but the other examples don’t really suggest 4D chess. Tarkov’s blunder might’ve sent droves of players to new competitor Gray Zone Warfare, and the whole Helldivers 2 thing amounted to a lot of angry noise and no benefit to Sony. The ill-timed Fallout 4 patch seems like a net negative, too—just bad feelings at a time when the series is celebrating a successful TV show.

At the heart of all these controversies, I think, is that people really hate it when they feel like the terms have been changed under their feet after they’ve already become invested in a thing.

If it ain’t broke, break it

I can see Sony’s side: Lots of Steam games require a second account, and people don’t riot about all of them, and I’m sure the requirement really would simplify its cross-platform moderation job. But the reaction wasn’t mainly about the inconvenience. It was about that inconvenience being introduced after Helldivers 2 had already become the year’s best-selling game. You’re not going to convince anyone that making a PSN account is necessary for their safety three months in, and knowing how protective people are about their Steam experience, the review bombing was entirely predictable. (I shudder to think about what it would’ve been like if they’d insisted everyone make an Epic account.)

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Let us spare a thought for all the folks at these companies who looked at the length of the ramp and the size of the gap and said “this seems like a bad idea” while someone else stepped on the gas.

It takes real commitment to change the status quo. Among last year’s biggest controversies wereD&D planning to change its license agreement(walked back) and Unityintroducing a new fee structure(CEO resigned), but it doesn’t have to be anything that serious: When Blizzard tried to change the name of Battle.net to “Blizzard App” in 2017, everyone said no, you can’t do that, and so theychanged it back.

Every company will make mistakes, and maybe snarls like these are inevitable, but you do get the feeling that at least some of them could’ve been avoided if publishers spent “a bit more energy listening to the voices within their own studios who warn them when these decisions are obviously going to land appallingly,” asTim put it when writing about the Hearthstone controversy.

Now that the flames are dying down, let us spare a thought for all the folks at these companies who looked at the length of the ramp and the size of the gap and said “Hey, this seems like a bad idea” while the person in the driver’s seat stepped on the gas.

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Lords of the Fallen publisher embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its gamesEpic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’

Lords of the Fallen (2023) promotional image - very large man with a very large hammer on a very large horse charging a very small man with a very small magic sword

Lords of the Fallen publisher embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its games

Tim Sweeney

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’

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Cruel is a frantic run-and-gun shooter where you boot cultists out of windows in a cursed apartment block that wants you dead

Cruel

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If it ain’t broke, break it#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

If it ain’t broke, break it

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals