There’s a saying in journalistic circles: “never make yourself the story.” In the world of games development, where a stray interview comment or ill-advised PR stunt can blow up across media sites in a matter of minutes, that’s not always an easy rule to stick to.
2012 had no shortage of blunders, flubs and mistakes to choose from, so here are some of the stand-out public relations gaffes of the past year.
Who says a dud game can't have a video game comeback?
Cyberpunk and No Man's Sky have to be up there. We're lucky and cursed, equally, to have games that can be updated now. For folks old enough to remember the Sega/SNES into PS1 and even 2 eras, if a game came out that was half baked (*cough*Angel of Darkness*cough*) that was it, no redemption. At the same time, having the option for updates shouldn't be an excuse for half assing games.
I remember when the Nintendo Seal of Approval meant something.
All those games had to release without bugs.
Diablo III still works on modern PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and remains hugely playable a decade after initial release.
When Hitman 3 recently changed its name to Hitman World of Assassination, fans had no idea how meaningful the moment was. On the outside it looked like a simple thing: Hitman 3 would now be known by this name and include levels from Hitman 2 and 3 - the trilogy would all be in one place. But on the inside, at IO Interactive, much more was going on.
You mean destroyed it with this tethered single-player campaign BS... And only the first few levels of the third modern game were on the disc! I'll never support this crap at any price-point! They've lost me as a customer.
Girlfriend mode - I still titter at that one.
The War Z is a pretty big cock-up in my opinion and no doubt there will be more from them.
More like overblown lines by sensationalist media.
Halo 4. The whole "Crimson Map Pack" being "free" and then later "a 14 day trial." Then the specialization codes - they were sent, they weren't sent, some regions don't get them etc. (Hint - don't hold parts of your game back from the community... it has zero potential benefit for you.)
Just a piss poor PR job from 343i. Game is decent, PR could have been much much better.