15 Times Game Developers Shamelessly Deceived Fans
Toonacious
Published
08/26/2021
in
Funny
Video games are hard to make and harder to market. So it's understandable that creators go all-out to ensure that their magnum opus ends up in the solid-state drives of millions worldwide.
The problem is, at times, the same people cross the line of morality to ensure their pockets are full at the end of the day. Let's see some examples.
The problem is, at times, the same people cross the line of morality to ensure their pockets are full at the end of the day. Let's see some examples.
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1.
The Last Of Us: Part II - No Spoilers, but the main reason this game sits at a 5 out of 10 user score on Metacritic is not because of how it plays. At its core, TLOU Part II is a functioning, polished and straightforward story experience. It's one of the best-looking games on Sony's leading platform, and nobody can deny that. However, you can question the honesty of the developers for sure. The story trailer started with Joel's voice and showed him throughout, making everyone think they'll be stepping into Joel's shoes for another hardcore adventure. Joel's inclusion in the game is limited to a short few minutes. So the fact that developers wanted to harpoon off his non-existent appearance and marketing the game to be another Joel and Ellie experience was real cheap. -
2.
Watch Dogs- Who does not remember the infamous gameplay demo trailer that shook the walls of the gaming kingdom. This game was said to be a true GTA killer, the one game that could do it all and had the visuals you'd never seen in an open world before. The realistic weather, wind, the water effects, the lighting, the animations, and the interactions with the world were too good to be true. But who knew? It was indeed too good to be true. The fact that this game ran on the 256 MB XDR DRAM of PlayStation 3 was already a red alert. Ubisoft downgraded the game, and the so-called "GTA Killer" was buried alive under its chaotic hype. -
3.
WWE 2K20- Writing more than a few sentences for this one is a waste of time, so I'll try to sum it up as short as possible. Bad game, horrible glitches, unjustifiable control changes, poor optimization, awful multiplayer, and unacceptably half-baked. Then how is it possible that the developers didn't know about this? Unless 2K did it for a quick cash-grab. -
4.
No Man’s Sky - The gaming community supported the developer team behind No Man's Sky, Hello Games, on their journey to create their most ambitious game ever. Where everyone can collaborate and explore an endless universe full of procedurally generated unique locations and survive. Now, most of it would've been fine if Hello Games had just admitted to creating a procedurally generated space exploration game. But they didn't. Instead, they promised features that were impossible for them to make at the time and shipped the game without any such features. The obvious result was a wave of backlash from the community that matched that of the Montreal Screwjob. -
5.
Killzone 2- Back in 2009, Killzone 2 was a major factor for purchasing the PlayStation 3. It was a good-looking shooter that you couldn't play anywhere else, but despite its success, there was one key element a lot of people forgot. A few years ago, Killzone 2 was an entirely different game. The gameplay demo shown at E3 2005 had less impressive lighting, but everything else was completely different. The gameplay was fluid and cinematic, the character models were great, and the game felt quite open. However, the final version was completely different. -
6.
Dead Island - Go and watch the cinematic trailer of Dead Island and then come back to us. It is serious, dark, and full of scary zombies. On the other hand, the final game has hilarious ragdolls, ridiculous characters, and absurd quests, a complete 180-degree turn from the reveal trailer. -
7.
Dark Souls II - Even though I am super biased towards this game and think it is just as fun as the other two Dark Souls titles, I can't help but long for gameplay demo shown by From Software. The lighting was scary and moody. The torches had more uses, which added a new gameplay element into the mix, however, the final game didn't offer the same level of lighting, shadows, or grittiness upon release. -
8.
Bioshock Infinite - The third Bioshock game is an absolute joy to play in every way. The shooting mechanics, the Vigor abilities, and the sheer pace of that game make us want to jump in and Sky-Hook around the beautiful world of Columbia. But being good or bad is subjective and has nothing to do with how the developers changed the game slowly from the point they revealed it. Originally, Columbia was supposed to be a much bigger, diverse, and open city. Elizabeth's powers also played a much bigger role, and the whole concept felt truly deluxe. The final game had some of the same things on release and was fun but not what the developers promised. -
9.
Cyberpunk 2077- The hype surrounding this one was unreal. Mostly because the creators of The Witcher 3 were behind it, and how could anybody doubt them? CD Projekt Red had always been the good guys of the game industry, as they are vocal about their dislike for things like microtransactions and Denuvo protection. They had faith in gamers, so in return, gamers had faith in them. Well, this vanished on the release of Cyberpunk 2077. The game was unfinished, untested, and needed at least another year in the oven. It wasn't close to the advertised quality. -
10.
Crackdown 3 - To put it as simply as possible, Crackdown 3 was not even as good as Crackdown 1. But that is not the reason why it's on the list. During the actual gameplay reveal, the developers promised an incredible server-based destruction system that would be the key to this game. Not just that, everything looked polished. Just look at the screenshot. However, the final release was miles behind its reveal trailer. It was missing features, and graphical upgrades were the bare minimum. Youtuber Crowbcat has a straightforward comparison of Crackdown 3's downgrade, which is certainly worth watching for a few laughs. -
11.
Aliens: Colonial Marines- Over the last two decades, there have been great Alien games like Alien: Isolation and not-so-good ones like AVP 2010. However, no Alien game has ever matched Colonial Marines in terms of utter disappointment. As if having the word "colon" in the main title isn't enough, the game honestly was a case of virtual diarrhea. At least that is how the textures of the game looked. Moreover, the game offered no good resemblance to the gameplay trailer that developer Gearbox Software used to market it. -
12.
Anthem - This is an example of over-promising and under-delivering. Anthem could've been a decent game if EA had removed some of its malpractices and given Bioware a bit more time. Instead, they invested a lot into building a trailer that looked so next-gen that it was almost hard to believe it was in-game. Not just that, it was challenging to accept that this game was coming on PS4 and Xbox One. But don't they say, if something looks too good to be true, it probably is? As expected, the final game wasn't great and didn't play as promised. -
13.
Mass Effect Andromeda - EA and Bioware, the combo that brought us Anthem. Who knew they would back-stab their fans once more with Andromeda. Well, they released this game first and Anthem later, so I should've written this in the previous one, but you get the point. Andromeda was supposed to be the next generation of Mass Effect, a truly thrilling and grand sci-fi title from the creators of the original trilogy. EA promised us something more by showing amazing visuals, top-notch face animation, and a deep story, all of which were not present in the final game. -
14.
Tom Clancy's The Division - Do not panic. This is the last mention of Ubisoft on this list. By now, most of us know that Ubisoft has deceived fans quite a bit. From subtle changes like in the Far Cry 3 gameplay trailer to downright massive changes of Tom Clancy's The Division, they are the most infamous game company that somehow manages to be less bad than EA while doing the same things as EA. The Division's gameplay trailer blew the roof off the place with its integrated user interface, gameplay mechanics, and overall graphics setting. Once again, Ubisoft promised the game to be huge, showing off endless ways to approach an objective. In the end, the developers dislodged everything, even the harmless but creative user interface. What was left were mindless waves of bullet-sponge enemies. -
15.
Project Natal Milo - Nope, just nope. Project Natal Milo was never actually released, and for good reason, as it was a paradise for people like Herbert from Family Guy. This game was a lie. Based on the gameplay demo, the developers promised that players could talk to in-game characters and respond in real-time. The A.I characters would also reply and speak like a real person and feel emotions and fear. I mean, this was honestly some creepy crap and was probably canned due to unachievable goals.
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