There seems to be a new theme doing the rounds in the gaming community at the moment and that is that there is a large, and vocal, crowd of people who appear to just want new IP’s to fail.
For years we screamed out that we want the industry to be more original, try new things and bring us something new and exciting, and for years the industry ignored us and made billions just repeating the same game over and over again. However with the arrival of a new generation a few publishers have taken the plunge and piled money into some brand new IP’s and without fail every single one of them has been preceded by a tsunami of articles and forum posts predicting and even hoping for failure.
The most recently released title which suffered, and is suffering, through this is Destiny. The game is not perfect by any stretch but its shooting mechanics, public world events, raids and strikes are all fantastic and with the game laying out an expansive world there really is time for it to perfect the story and loot grinding.
Yes it could have been better but the amount of hate we see for this game is mind-boggling.
And now we have Sunset Overdrive, a free-roaming sandbox shooter with a crazy storyline, artistic layout and insane characters. Only a few people in the world have actually had more than a few hours with the game and yet forums like Neogaf are choc full of people saying how it sucks.
I mean look at this comment (emphasis mine)
That’s not the worst of it.
Rumour has it that MS are in salvage mode with this project. Focus testing, now backed up by early reviews is painting a very negative picture of the game. Claims of repetitive, dull, lacking in polish, lacking in appeal, inconsistent, lacks direction are often heard in hushed tones when Sunset Overdrive is mentioned.
MS have distanced themselves completely from Insomniac, their only interest now is to try and recoup the money they invested into development as well as money for their contractual obligation to market the game.
It’s not all one sided, Insomniac are apparently very distraught of having backed the wrong horse with the Xbox One. They were hoping for a five million seller, but with the Xbox One install base in dire straits and the market’s complete rejection of the Xbox brand, well, you get the picture.
That’s why Insomniac allowed Sony to use the font for their recent sale. It was a reconciliatory measure to get back in Sony’s good graces, so they’d allow them to make more games after the Ratchet and Clank reboot.
It’s pretty much a disaster from any perspective. Insomniac weeping, MS ruing, critical backlash, market on course to reject the IP.
It’s perhaps the biggest disaster we’ll see in gaming, rivalling that of ET. There will be documentaries about this game for years to come…
The biggest disaster since ET? This is coming from someone who has no insight into the game and has not played it. The ET disaster was more linked to an industry virtually failing than how awful the game was, but even so this game is nowhere near that bad even if you hate it.
It won’t sink Insomniac and could still well make them a profit – if the angry gaming community doesn’t sink it for no reason.
As for Insomniac allowing Sony to use their font, that shows you how little knowledge is actually behind this comment.
To me this current phenomenon is simply yet another example of the gaming communities self-loathing. We’ve worked for years at being accepted as a normal community and treated as such and as soon as gaming actually hit mainstream we start attacking ourselves.
It reminds me of the nerds in school, they all stuck together and were happy until one of them started being accepted by the cool group. That one then turned on his fellow nerds to show the popular kids how they were like them.
Just stop it people, there is nothing embarrassing about being a gamer. It doesn’t change your social standing one iota or define who you are. I for one hope that Sunset Overdrive sells well over 10 million copies because that would be good for the industry. I also hope Destiny’s story faults and other issues are resolved and it goes on to be one of the most successful IP’s ever introduced. Again because this will be good for the industry.
