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What dev teams/publishers do you hate on a more moral stand point?


DaveMcDamage

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Hi everyone, 

 

So this thread is all about what dev teams and/or publishers you hate, but more on a personal stand rather than because of game quality as such. 

 

Now people could say EA Games, but then have about 10 games on their played list. Don't get confused by this, its no different to hating your employer but at the end of the day you have a roof over your head and pay the bills because they give you a wage etc etc. 

 

So for me it would be....

 

Naughty Dog

Now on PS3 I played the first two Uncharted games but hated the MP modes on U2. A bit later and U3 and Last of Us arrived but I was burnt out and couldn't be arsed to play them. How happy was my pants when I saw that the PS4 had the Uncharted trilogy but without the online crap. Played them, loved them, went to move to Uncharted 4 *record scratches and comes to a stop*.

 

Now I read up on the online stuff for U4 and when I saw things about updates that nerfed players weapons as to sell microtransactions I was sickened. Couple that when ND responded to a gamer who questioned there unfair tactics and was told if he wants to succeed he should buy there MT's. It put me off so much I'm not sure I could ever play an ND game again. I despise this pay to win system, especially when 100% of games (ages specific or not) are all aimed at kids, and to tell them if they want to win then they should buy there way... its just a sad mentality to live by. 

 

2K Games

When all that shit kicked off and governments were actually stepping in to class loot boxes as gambling, Belgium were to first country to act on it and outright banned them. 2K Games then wrote a letter to address gamers to speak to there government if they wish to continue to have awesome games and not be restricted by financial resources. Fucking disgusting!

 

 

 

 

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Konami

 

Once a great video game company that made such classics as Contra, Castlevania and of course Metal Gear Solid. Decided to ditch Hideo Kojima in favor of making games for slot machines found in various casinos.

 

Horrible company with horrible practices.

 

EA

 

We all know why we hate them. They took what made Westwood Studios, Maxis and Viscereal Studios great and drove them into the ground.

 

EA Access is a joke. They also do a poor job of properly testing their games before releasing them on the shelves. Madden is one such example. EA is on the board for live service games, something that I have very strong feelings against.

 

Blizzard/Activision

 

Blizzard was a great company, once voted as one of the best companies to work for in the United States. Nowadays they seem content on laying off a lot of their employees.

 

With the disaster that is Warcraft 3 Reforged, Blizzard/Activision seems to enjoy pissing off a lot of their fans. Diablo 3 marked the start of their decline. Now they are far from the days when Blizzard marked a quality game.

 

2K Games

 

One of the worst publishers out there. Money grubbing company that only cares for results. Fully in support of microtransactions and lootboxes. Many of their games range from okay to downright mediocre.

 

NBA 2K20 is a good example of what I hate in today's video game industry. Marketing and sales is the game in a nutshell.

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6 hours ago, Kittet3 said:

I remember hearing about EA's awful work culture and how poorly they plan out their projects to the point where people were working obscene hours before launch dates to get games fixed.

 

So EA.

 

That's the industry as a whole, unfortunately. I don't think you'll be able to find a major studio that doesn't rely on a level of crunch that would be unacceptable in any industry.

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3 hours ago, cckerberos said:

That's the industry as a whole, unfortunately. I don't think you'll be able to find a major studio that doesn't rely on a level of crunch that would be unacceptable in any industry.

 

To be honest, every industry has its terrible practices that are a result of greed.  If you boil crunch down to what it is: unrealistic expectations and deadlines, it's actually present in every industry to some degree and a very rampant issue with companies in the US because our labor laws allow this to happen.  Every industry has its equivalent of crunch where employees are pushed far harder than they should be.

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Not sure if this counts, but I hate Bethesda’s stuck up attitude about TES:VI.

 

Whenever they’re announcing a new game, people naturally start speculating about TES:VI, and get excited. Only for Bethesda to crash the party in an arrogant, cocky way. It’s always something like “Oh, haha! You thought it was TES:VI? Oh, boohoo, poor you! That’s still 20 decades away! We wanna keep you on your toes! Hahahaha”

 

Their attitude is just so annoying and arrogant, as if everyone is waiting for their masterpiece of a game. I used to think Skyrim was amazing til I played other stuff. They think everyone wakes up everyday and prays for their next TES, and that that’s all people care about. That there aren’t other worthy, amazing games out there.

 

They can shove that attitude where the sun doesn’t shine. Fine, I’ll just play other better, *cough* finished/not buggy games *cough* that don’t use an engine with the technological capabilities of a toaster. -_-

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I dont like those who publish games with bugged trophies or disable trophies intentionally.

 

100% of Civilization VI are stil unobtainable despite of a lot of reports to Firaxis and 2K.

Rockstar intentionally made trophy Like a wind unobainable (GTA5 ps3)

 

I love Naughty dog games with multiplayer. Spent hundreds hours playing Uncharted and Last of Us coop/matches. Hope online part of Last of Us 2 will be great too

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Rockstar games

 

I used to like this company but after GTA 5 Online and their shark cards.... 

 

Rockstar Games are getting worse every year. They removed radio songs from older GTAs because they dont want to pay licences (GTA 4 lost a lot of its nostalgia without the russian vladivostock FM songs). Furthermore instead of creating great singleplayer DLCs they are completly  pushing GTA Online , because it gets them more money. Rockstar games could redeem themselves but instead they make their fourth (!!!!) GTA 5 Port to the new consoles. The PS2 had 5 different (!!!) GTA games and the ps3 at least 2 with 2 great stand-alones!

 

For PS4 we only got RDR 2... 

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8 hours ago, cckerberos said:

 

That's the industry as a whole, unfortunately. I don't think you'll be able to find a major studio that doesn't rely on a level of crunch that would be unacceptable in any industry.

Yeah. As mentioned by the other chap, this goes for every company in the entire world. Even charities don't give all their money to actual charities without taking a hefty cut first. I think once a dev team is past the point of indie devs, thats when it all starts going yukky. Look at the early years of Roickstar Games. That team were a bunch of coding gods who knew gaming. Now that the main players are reaching or into their fifties, they all want that big money super fast. Once they all quit to live the high life, Rockstar Games will fall off the Earth.

4 hours ago, Mayellie said:

Not sure if this counts, but I hate Bethesda’s stuck up attitude about TES:VI.

 

Whenever they’re announcing a new game, people naturally start speculating about TES:VI, and get excited. Only for Bethesda to crash the party in an arrogant, cocky way. It’s always something like “Oh, haha! You thought it was TES:VI? Oh, boohoo, poor you! That’s still 20 decades away! We wanna keep you on your toes! Hahahaha”

 

Their attitude is just so annoying and arrogant, as if everyone is waiting for their masterpiece of a game. I used to think Skyrim was amazing til I played other stuff. They think everyone wakes up everyday and prays for their next TES, and that that’s all people care about. That there aren’t other worthy, amazing games out there.

 

They can shove that attitude where the sun doesn’t shine. Fine, I’ll just play other better, *cough* finished/not buggy games *cough* that don’t use an engine with the technological capabilities of a toaster. -_-

Every so often a dev team/publisher employs a guy who's mouth and personality are much bigger than what they can achieve. This is when Bethesda went into a downward spiral when they gave that dickhead with the curly hair a microphone and made him their spokesman to gamers. Bleagh!

38 minutes ago, Alex_Gorbatschow said:

Rockstar games

 

I used to like this company but after GTA 5 Online and their shark cards.... 

 

Rockstar Games are getting worse every year. They removed radio songs from older GTAs because they dont want to pay licences (GTA 4 lost a lot of its nostalgia without the russian vladivostock FM songs). Furthermore instead of creating great singleplayer DLCs they are completly  pushing GTA Online , because it gets them more money. Rockstar games could redeem themselves but instead they make their fourth (!!!!) GTA 5 Port to the new consoles. The PS2 had 5 different (!!!) GTA games and the ps3 at least 2 with 2 great stand-alones!

 

For PS4 we only got RDR 2... 

Yeah I have all sorts of hate for how Rockstar Games changed with the success of GTAO. But what pissed me off more than anything, was when there spokesman at TT called gamers who don't want to buy shark cards a bunch of scrounging penny pinchers. In no other industry could a spokesperson come out and say this about the consumer (even if it was true in a sense), but gaming to this day is still seen as marketing for kids and we all get dumped in like we are supposed to take it. Makes me sick, but I hit where it hurts a business and thats by spending my money elsewhere. 

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12 hours ago, ladynadiad said:

 

To be honest, every industry has its terrible practices that are a result of greed.  If you boil crunch down to what it is: unrealistic expectations and deadlines, it's actually present in every industry to some degree and a very rampant issue with companies in the US because our labor laws allow this to happen.  Every industry has its equivalent of crunch where employees are pushed far harder than they should be.


Trust me I worked a lot of retail and warehousing jobs in my life.... we got a lot of shitty expectations even as entry/low level workers. The managers got just as much crap from the people above them. It’s a shitty practice in the United States that has gotten worse over time. 

 

7 hours ago, Kristen Danielle said:

Oh, so they're responsible for the fact that we will never see Dante's Purgatory or Dante's Paradise. Okay, mine is definitely EA, then.


Not that Dante’s Inferno was the best thing out there, but still. 
 

EA drove Dead Space into the ground, which is good enough to be upset with them. 
 

7 hours ago, Alex_Gorbatschow said:

Rockstar games

 

I used to like this company but after GTA 5 Online and their shark cards.... 

 

Rockstar Games are getting worse every year. Furthermore instead of creating great singleplayer DLCs they are completly  pushing GTA Online , because it gets them more money. Rockstar games could redeem themselves but instead they make their fourth (!!!!) GTA 5 Port to the new consoles. The PS2 had 5 different (!!!) GTA games and the ps3 at least 2 with 2 great stand-alones!

 

For PS4 we only got RDR 2... 


Don’t forget Bully, Manhunt 1 & 2, Red Dead Revolver AND The Warriors. 
 

They also published LA Noire during the PS3 generation. 
 

Now it’s all about the money. 
 

Will we ever see a sequel to Bully? From the looks of this company, extremely unlikely. 
 

7 hours ago, DaveMcDamage said:

Yeah. As mentioned by the other chap, this goes for every company in the entire world. Even charities don't give all their money to actual charities without taking a hefty cut first. I think once a dev team is past the point of indie devs, thats when it all starts going yukky. Look at the early years of Roickstar Games. That team were a bunch of coding gods who knew gaming. Now that the main players are reaching or into their fifties, they all want that big money super fast. Once they all quit to live the high life, Rockstar Games will fall off the Earth.


Dan Houser is no longer a big guy for the company. 
 

Apple is just a label without their visionary and genius Steve Jobs. Microsoft without Bill Gates hasn’t been anything spectacular. 
 

Rockstar Games kicked ass in the PS2 era. But without that vision and innovation they are just another money grubbing company set on selling shark cards for their aging GTA Online. 
 

Rockstar in many ways is no different than EA and Activision. Blizzard is suffering under the leadership of Activision, so it’s only a matter of time before that company goes completely downhill.

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1 hour ago, Spaz said:

Trust me I worked a lot of retail and warehousing jobs in my life.... we got a lot of shitty expectations even as entry/low level workers. The managers got just as much crap from the people above them. It’s a shitty practice in the United States that has gotten worse over time. 

 

Yeah, it boils down to the fact that every industry has its busy time of the year and they also have a slower time of the year.  I always find it funny when people complain about how game devs treat their workers like it's something unique to that company but large companies that don't treat workers like shit are the exception, not the rule.

 

Me personally, I just stopped buying AAA games.  It's not so much I disagree with their practices, I just feel that in their greed they forgot that they are in the business to make games and they've forgotten what is actually fun to play.  I've just found smaller devs and indie devs make far superior game experiences because they usually have a better idea what makes a fun game and they still have an interest to make fun games and hopefully get a profit in the process rather than the AAA devs who are looking to make a profit and hopefully make a fun game in the process instead.  There's a huge difference in quality of their product when the focus is on the games rather than the profits.

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On 8/8/2020 at 5:45 PM, Parker said:

EA. They seem to have a habit of buying studios that have made amazing games and then milking that studio until they eventually close down. 

 

 

Agreed. Even with all missteps of Naughty Dog, Ubisoft, Activision these companies are angels compared to the insidious business practices of EA. Bleeding dev teams dry like Visceral, Westwood, Pandemic, etc. literally erased games for gamers to play. The mishandling of the Battlefield series and other franchises along with all the microtransaction crap pushes them over the top. 

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2 hours ago, ladynadiad said:

Yeah, it boils down to the fact that every industry has its busy time of the year and they also have a slower time of the year.  I always find it funny when people complain about how game devs treat their workers like it's something unique to that company but large companies that don't treat workers like shit are the exception, not the rule.


The fact of the matter is these companies like Walmart and Dollar Tree have made a killing off of their profits, yet continue to mistreat their workers left and right. 
 

Why do they continue to do this? Because the corporate executives don’t give a fuck. There is the old saying, “Shit rolls downhill”. Corporate gives the general managers crap, and they in turn give the managers below them crap. Eventually it goes down to lowly workers like myself, slaving away at a dead end job. 
 

I did warehousing at Dollar Tree and in that time frame I saw my work hours go from 50 to 60 hours a week... along with full time benefits getting cut. I got fired eventually because I wasn’t working hard enough despite the fact I was doing the best I could. 
 

Corporate executives mishandle their workers like it’s an art form. 
 

You don’t think EA and Blizzard/Activision have guys slaving away at their jobs? They got them... mostly because the corporate work ethic in the USA has gone to shit. 
 

2 hours ago, ladynadiad said:

Me personally, I just stopped buying AAA games.  It's not so much I disagree with their practices, I just feel that in their greed they forgot that they are in the business to make games and they've forgotten what is actually fun to play.  I've just found smaller devs and indie devs make far superior game experiences because they usually have a better idea what makes a fun game and they still have an interest to make fun games and hopefully get a profit in the process rather than the AAA devs who are looking to make a profit and hopefully make a fun game in the process instead.  There's a huge difference in quality of their product when the focus is on the games rather than the profits.


The smaller devs can get away with that because they don’t have some giant publisher telling them to do this or this. 
 

Look at what we got in the PlayStation 2 and early Playstation 3 generations.... and look at what we’re getting nowadays. See the difference? 
 

Just look at Rockstar Games to get a good insight of how a once great company can turn to shit from corporate greed and mismanagement.

 

The way Blizzard handled Warcraft 3 Reforged this year just tells me the company isn’t nearly as good as it used to be.

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30 minutes ago, Spaz said:

The fact of the matter is these companies like Walmart and Dollar Tree have made a killing off of their profits, yet continue to mistreat their workers left and right. 
 

Why do they continue to do this? Because the corporate executives don’t give a fuck. There is the old saying, “Shit rolls downhill”. Corporate gives the general managers crap, and they in turn give the managers below them crap. Eventually it goes down to lowly workers like myself, slaving away at a dead end job. 
 

I did warehousing at Dollar Tree and in that time frame I saw my work hours go from 50 to 60 hours a week... along with full time benefits getting cut. I got fired eventually because I wasn’t working hard enough despite the fact I was doing the best I could. 
 

Corporate executives mishandle their workers like it’s an art form. 
 

You don’t think EA and Blizzard/Activision have guys slaving away at their jobs? They got them... mostly because the corporate work ethic in the USA has gone to shit. 

 

I think a big part of it is the disconnect between the corporate executives and the lowly entry level workers.  A lot of people comment about how Walmart treats employees, but I'm actually lucky enough to have worked in a good Walmart store for a year and then I moved and worked at a more typical store.  It is possible to be a Walmart employee and be treated well, but it's rare to see a store with actual good management who knows how to pull this off.  The places that are bad to work at see their employees as numbers and expendable and consider their employees an expense that cuts into profits rather than a boon that brings the profits in.  They try to run a company with the least amount of employees as possible to keep the costs in paying workers low without realizing that a few more employees may actually result in more profit. 

 

30 minutes ago, Spaz said:

The smaller devs can get away with that because they don’t have some giant publisher telling them to do this or this. 
 

Look at what we got in the PlayStation 2 and early Playstation 3 generations.... and look at what we’re getting nowadays. See the difference? 
 

Just look at Rockstar Games to get a good insight of how a once great company can turn to shit from corporate greed and mismanagement.

 

The way Blizzard handled Warcraft 3 Reforged this year just tells me the company isn’t nearly as good as it used to be.

 

Another good example is Square/Enix.  Sqaure way back in the day was a great dev that made awesome games and would very much push the limits of the console they developed on to make a great game and then they eventually went to crap and while their games are definitely pretty, they are missing so much of what makes a good game and you're waiting forever for the next installment to boot.

 

But I also do feel that we still have some great devs out there and there are a few devs that have stayed small companies and have been able to keep true to their original visions while continuing to improve upon what works for them.  That's a big part of why I stick with indies and smaller devs now and just avoid AAA games in general no matter how much people recommend one. Even some of the popular games from the PS2 gen and early PS3 gen still fall flat to me.  I feel AAA devs started to go downhill around the time of the first Playstation and I was already more into the smaller devs and playing stuff like Suikoden instead of Final Fantasy.  The main problem to me is that the AAA games have really drowned out the smaller devs at this point because it's so hard for a smaller dev to get their game any attention since Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Steam are pushing the huge AAA releases all the time.  I do think things are improving because the smaller devs aren't having to fight to get a spot on a physical shelf any longer and all I have to do to find those games is keep an eye out on new releases in the PSN store and pop the ones that look interesting on my wishlist if I'm not buying right off.

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6 hours ago, ladynadiad said:

I think a big part of it is the disconnect between the corporate executives and the lowly entry level workers.  A lot of people comment about how Walmart treats employees, but I'm actually lucky enough to have worked in a good Walmart store for a year and then I moved and worked at a more typical store.  It is possible to be a Walmart employee and be treated well, but it's rare to see a store with actual good management who knows how to pull this off.  The places that are bad to work at see their employees as numbers and expendable and consider their employees an expense that cuts into profits rather than a boon that brings the profits in.  They try to run a company with the least amount of employees as possible to keep the costs in paying workers low without realizing that a few more employees may actually result in more profit.

 

I don't know how long you've been in the work force, but from the way you have structured your posts it sounds like you've been working a long time.

 

I started in the mid 2000s, in my early 30s now and have basically bounced from job to job.

 

I had the misfortune of being a cart gatherer for Walmart for several months, you know the guys who go out there in the parking lot to gather carts all around the store. The management there was terrible, my manager was a stuck up bitch who blamed me for not working hard enough. The turnover rate was ridiculous, a lot of 18 - 20 year old kids I worked with quit within the first month or two. It was a thankless job, and getting away from Walmart felt like a huge weight was taken off my shoulders.

 

Then eventually I was able to work at WinCo, the store I grew up going to with my parents for weekend grocery shopping. I was treated a lot better there than I was at either Walmart or Dollar Tree. Safeway was another retail company I worked for that was sort of shitty.

 

Costco I hear is a great company to work for with good benefits, but I've never been able to land a job interview, let alone a job itself. Everybody tries to get a job at Costco, so the problem is having a chance of even being there to do anything.

 

Dollar Tree sees their employees as numbers, same with Walmart. Sadly in this day and age finding a job with a company that cares about the employees is few and far between.

 

My dad worked with Hewlett Packard back in the 1990s. Great benefits, great managers, great work environment and a work team that knew their craft. The company now? Terrible, I've heard nothing but bad reviews regarding the work environment.

 

6 hours ago, ladynadiad said:

Another good example is Square/Enix.  Sqaure way back in the day was a great dev that made awesome games and would very much push the limits of the console they developed on to make a great game and then they eventually went to crap and while their games are definitely pretty, they are missing so much of what makes a good game and you're waiting forever for the next installment to boot.

 

But I also do feel that we still have some great devs out there and there are a few devs that have stayed small companies and have been able to keep true to their original visions while continuing to improve upon what works for them.  That's a big part of why I stick with indies and smaller devs now and just avoid AAA games in general no matter how much people recommend one. Even some of the popular games from the PS2 gen and early PS3 gen still fall flat to me.  I feel AAA devs started to go downhill around the time of the first Playstation and I was already more into the smaller devs and playing stuff like Suikoden instead of Final Fantasy.  The main problem to me is that the AAA games have really drowned out the smaller devs at this point because it's so hard for a smaller dev to get their game any attention since Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Steam are pushing the huge AAA releases all the time.  I do think things are improving because the smaller devs aren't having to fight to get a spot on a physical shelf any longer and all I have to do to find those games is keep an eye out on new releases in the PSN store and pop the ones that look interesting on my wishlist if I'm not buying right off.

 

Square was great with Final Fantasy X, perhaps the best 3D Final Fantasy game they ever made. Played it on the PS2. Unfortunately I just don't have that kind of time anymore to spend hours and hours on a single game.

 

The way they've handled Final Fantasy XV just tells me Square is a shitty company now. Konami is another example, they were still doing good in the 2000s. Then they decided to dump Hideo Kojima and focus on slot machines. Metal Gear Survive was a disaster.

 

Well you need to think, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas still felt like a game. Ever since Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online, Rockstar Games has basically milked their products for all they're worth. As much as I want to buy and play Red Dead Redemption 2, I don't want to go through a 200+ hour slog if most of the content is simply padded crap. In the PS2 generation, Rockstar was focused on making games first and foremost. Bully and Manhunt were both ideas that worked really well. There is nothing they're doing today that suggests they are really focusing on a new IP. If you ask me, Bully and Manhunt are both long overdue for a sequel/remake.

 

CD Projekt Red is still a good developer, although I'm not really interested in Cyberpunk. Cuphead is the hottest indie game on the PS4 right now, you may give it a shot if you haven't already.

 

I personally disagree with AAA developers going downhill with the first PlayStation. You're going back to 20 years ago. In my opinion, the golden era of gaming spanned from the late 1980s to the early - mid 2000s. Many video games of today still take a lot of ideas that stemmed from that time period.

 

Nintendo is still doing their thing, but just having a few exclusives and a couple indies here and there isn't going to convince me to buy a Switch. I regularly play on the PS4 and on Steam, and I'm content.

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