Developing videogames takes time and skill, and in some cases stretching the truth. It is no secret that game developers lie to the player in order to hype up their own game. There is nothing wrong with it, that is just how advertising works. So long as the lie is harmless, but what happens when the lies get out of hand and the game that was promised is nowhere near what was released. These lies can ruin an otherwise great game. With that said let us take a look at some of these developers whose lies ruin most of their credibility as we list the top 5 times, developers lied to gamers. Now for this list as easy as it would be, I will be excluding Peter Molyneux because despite all his lies when it comes to releasing his games, it has evolved into its own meme status. I will also exclude the Drivergate scandal because the developers didn’t lie, but they did pay reviewers to lie for them when it came to the score of the game. This list is inspired by the #Gamefreaklied scandal that is occurring due to the Pokemon Sword and Shield release, however, I will also be excluding this because of how fresh the scandal, and it will take a while before a real consensus can be made.
5. Who is the Arkham Knight?
Game: Batman Arkham Knight
Developer: Rocksteady
The Arkham Trilogy is the definitive Batman experience, Rocksteady managed to craft three amazing games that escalated the story and gave some the best Batman villains the spotlight. However, for the release of the third game in the series Batman: Arkham Knight, Rocksteady needed to introduce a new villain after killing off the Joker for the finale of Arkham City. The Arkham Knight is an armor-clad villain who runs a massive army of mercenaries for the purpose of taking over Gotham. In order to keep the identity of the Arkham Knight a secret, Rocksteady claimed that the Arkham Knight is an entirely new character created only for the game. However, fans quickly realized that the Arkham Knight was none other than the second Robin, Jason Todd.
The reason why this entry is low on the list is that while Rocksteady did lie about the villain, the lie was harmless and it did not affect the game at all. Also to be honest Rocksteady did not do a good job hiding the Knight’s identity. The pre-order bonus for the game was Redhood side missions, and the opening missions of the game brought up Robin’s death despite not getting a mention before. Even reviewers claimed that by the first hour you know who the Arkham Knight is.
4. Halo 5: Guardians’ Marketing
Game: Halo 5: Guardians
Developer: 343 Industry
After the failed launch of the Halo: Masterchief Collection, 343 Industry needed to bounce back in order to bring the Halo franchise to current-gen. Halo 5: Guardians attempt to bring Halo back to basic, after Halo 4 changed the formula to make it more Call of Duty. Despite releasing with good reviews, and a consistent community that still plays the games today. However, the same can’t be said for the story mode of the game. Halo 5: Guardians introduce a new Spartan called Spartan Lock, throughout the story you play as him as you search for Master Chief after The Chief decided to garb his own team in order to search for Cortana. Simple premise right? Well if you actually looked at all the trailers and interviews from 343 Industries and Microsoft you’ll assume that the Masterchief is on the run for destroying a planet.
The entire buildup of the game is that supposedly Masterchief went rouge and that you have to go after him. This was promoted as the #Huntthetruth campaign. Even the trailers portrayed the Chief and Lock trying to kill each other. However, it is safe to say that none of that actually happened. The player was expected to play as both Lock and Chief equally to get a good idea of the story, but it was more of 80% Lock, 20% Chief. This blatant attempt to mislead the player truly did hurt the reputation of Halo 5, and it took 343 Industries years to recover, all because they did not advertise the game properly.
3. Watch Dogs’ Visuals
Game: Watch Dogs
Developer: Ubisoft
Watch Dogs is one of the most infamous games this generation, from the bland story to the bland characters Watch Dogs promised so much only to drop the ball. However, before Watch Dogs was released the game was winning awards all over the place as the most anticipated game of the year. These awards and recognition come mostly from the E3 2012 press conference. The game was hailed as an introduction to the next-generation of gaming. The lighting was amazing, and the graphics were so realistic that I still remember how impressed I was watching the conference. However, when the game launched the graphics were nowhere near what was promise. The game wasn’t even the best looking to come out that year. Data miners even dough up the graphic files hiding inside the PC release of the game labeled as E3 file. Inside the file was the graphic tune-ups that the game took for the event.
Now to be fair developers lie about the graphic capabilities of games, one example is Killzone 2 E3 2005 trailer, which showed way more power that was possible for the PS3 at the time. There is a reason why trailers need to let you know that the images do not reflect the final product. It is safe to say that by now gamers are already savvy enough to expect visual downgrades when buying a game. While this shouldn’t be the case, and developers should advertise the game as is, the reason why we should always be aware of the final product is because of the lies told by Ubisoft.
2. One Man’s Lies (No Man’s Sky)
Game: No Man’s Sky
Developer: Hello Games
No Man’s Sky was a game that no one had any idea what it was about. Is it a game where you create colonies, is it a game where you and friends battle alien armadas in order to save the galaxy, or is it a game where you simply explore the endless universe. Well according to No Man’s Sky lead creator Sean Murray the game was about everything. You can look at every interview of the game and Sean Murray seems to add to what the game does. The hype for the game made No Man’s Sky one of the biggest games of 2016, but also the biggest bomb of the year. The game wasn’t finished, the game had randomly generated planets, however, most of them used the same color palettes. The multiplayer aspect really did not live up to much. Overall No Man’s Sky was incomplete.
Now to be fair not all the blame can be put toward Sean Murray, Sony’s PR department seems to have distanced themselves from Hello Games after the release of the game. Hello Games, despite the scandal manage to update the game and add quality of life changes that made the game significantly better, the game even saw a release on the Xbox One. While the game won’t be in any best-of all-time conversations, it is respectable to see how the game was able to overcome all the lies and still become a playable game.
1. Spore
Game: Spore
Developer: Maxis
Spore can be seen as the original No Man’s Sky, a game that promises so much just to fall flat. Develope by Maxis the game promise the player the ability to control the circle of life, you create a lifeform start from a cell and evolve to a full form creature. After that, you help your creatures evolve even further until they reach the top of the food chain and then take them to space. The game, in theory, allowed you to truly take control of evolution. However, when playing the actual game you pretty much played for an hour until you ran out of things to do. Honestly, the best part of the game was creating your creature, and a lot of players chose to stick to that small section of the game. Even sticking to that section, there was nothing much to do. Spore in a way best example of how developers can mislead the player, only to deliver one of the worst experiences in gaming.