By now, most of you would have heard about the Phil Fish/Fez II cancellation. As of now, the sequel to a hit game has been cancelled and an independent developer has left the industry. Was this due to constant ridicule from the gaming community or something else entirely? Gamers are a passionate collective, with strong opinions. Occasionally—whether intentionally or not—they have a direct impact on the industry: sometimes for the good, sometimes for their own reasons entirely. In this Top 5, we look at the…
Top 5 Instances of Gamers Making an Impact on Gaming
5) #PS4NoDRM
We kick things off with a campaign by gamers worried about the upcoming Playstation 4‘s DRM and used game policies. Since the Playstation 4‘s official announcement, Sony had remained relatively silent about the DRM issue. Upon hearing the news of Microsoft‘s own policies on the subject, gamers took to Twitter using the hashtag “#PS4NoDRM”.
Soon after, Sony senior business development manager Shadid Kamal Ahmed sent out a tweet: “To all the fans, with a special mention to GAFfers, I *love* your passion. It convinces me that the path I chose 31 years ago was right.” Other Sony employees joined in on the sentiment. The result of the campaign was shown at Sony‘s E3 press conference, where they announced that the Playstation 4 would have no DRM built into the console and would allow gamers to freely play and trade games.
4) Operation Rainfall
In June of 2011, fans launched a campaign to convince Nintendo to release three games—Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower—in North America. Fans took to social media, swarming Nintendo‘s Facebook page with comments demanding the games be made available. They then took to Amazon, pre-ordering Xenoblade (under the placeholder title Monado: Beginning of the World), boosting it up to be a top-selling game on the site. Nintendo listened and went on to release the games over the course of 2012 and early 2013.
3) EA Wins The Golden Poo…Twice
Every year The Consumerist polls the internet to determine which companies are the worst in America to award them with the not-so-coveted Golden Poo award. Electronic Arts had been doomed to fail (or win, in this case) in the eyes of the voters, many of whom could have been disgruntled gamers angry at EA over the troubled launch of SimCity, among other things. EA has recently changed a few policies, such as their use of the dreaded online pass in games, but still may have a long way to go with firings and other unresolved issues such as day-one DLC and reasonably priced games. Speaking of EA…
2) Mass Effect 3 Ending
Bioware’s 2012 hit game came with some controversy regarding the ending to the game. Many vocal gamers took to the internet, using social media and forums to question the ending of the game. Some critics were divided on how they felt, with some finding nothing wrong with the conclusion to the game, while others felt deprived of the control they thought they had over the ending. After a couple months, the Retake Mass Effect campaign was finally answered by Bioware releasing DLC explaining certain events gamers called into question, but did nothing to change the overall story of the events in question.
1) XBox One (Eighty)
Of course coming in at the top spot is Microsoft’s reversal on the DRM policies of their next generation console. To say Microsoft had a rocky road with their launch was an understatement. As soon as knowledge of the policies Microsoft would put in place for the Xbox One went around, gamers got mad. Of course, Microsoft didn’t really do anything to win new fans over. Former head of Microsoft Entertainment, Don Mattrick, went on record to tell people without a stable internet connection to get a Xbox 360. Then at E3 Microsoft didn’t exactly clarify how these policies would help the console, which could have gone a long way. Gamers, obviously still salty (some more than salty) over the policies, took to social media, continuing to bash Microsoft at every opportunity. Almost a week after E3, Microsoft reversed their policies on the DRM for the Xbox One and recently allowed self publishing for their upcoming console as well. This may have been done due to the amount of backlash Microsoft received over their policies and worry over how this would impact their initial sales.
So what do you think, Nation? Does the community really have that much power, or is this a case of a vocal community trying to have their way? Let us know on our Facebook page, tweet us your thoughts, and, of course, leave a comment in the comment section below. Also, keep up with all the gaming news, reviews, and features you care about here on New Gamer Nation.