As an educator, I frequently have to write progress reports for my students. Oftentimes I find myself reiterating the same points of "Student X has done well with this, but needs to work more on that." The prospect of writing progress reports for gaming companies, however, sounds far more interesting, as the industry is constantly growing and presenting us consumers with welcome (and unwelcome) surprises and new products to enjoy. As such, there are always new trends, games, accomplishments, and sins to comment on (or old sins to remember). In a case that a company botches a release (like EA with Anthem) or is discovered to be involved in questionable/unethical practices (overworking employees, microtransactions...), gamers, critics, and moral advocates will assuredly express their discontent. Gaming companies are like bonfires, constantly lighting fires of passion, love, or resentment in the community.
EA
Hating on EA has become a norm, and for good reason. Thanks to the company's brilliant management and obsession with the "games as a service" model, which essentially entails including as many microtransactions as possible in all of its games, EA is always on the top of people's "Most Hated Company" and "Worst Company" lists. Of course, this is nothing new, as The Consumerist awarded EA with the official honor of "Worst Company in America" two years in a row in 2012 and 2013.
Now it's common for gaming companies to fuck up from time to time. Look at Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, Capcom, Konami, and Square-Enix. I could go in to great detail about how each of these companies have erred terribly in the past, but far more important is whether a company commits to learning from its past mistakes. As of right now, EA doesn't seem to be learning.
Anthem was a flop, and this sad yet unsurprising fact has already received widespread coverage in the media. Such was also the case with buggy, tragic comedy that was Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017, though unexpectedly, which, at least as of right now, seems to have killed off the Mass Effect franchise. This is truly unfortunate. The original Mass Effect trilogy is widely considered one of the greatest series of role-playing games ever made (I still need to complete Mass Effect 3 and see its bad ending, but I enjoyed the first two games, and their amazing stories and characters, very much). Bioware, also known for creating hits such as the Dragon Age and Knights of the Old Republic games, has truly fallen from grace, to no fault of their own. The onus, as expected, lies with EA, which has a history of acquiring game studios only to murder them/shut them down soon after. The overworked developers at Bioware tried their best to work with the constraints and misdirections given to them by the EA overlords, and the results, at least for Andromeda and Anthem, were atrocious, buggy, unfinished games.
We also can't forget the Star Wars: Battlefront II debacle and its microtransactions, which led to the most down-voted comment in Reddit history. Disney's CEO commented that Disney is happy with how EA has handled the Star Wars games, proving his own underlying point that Disney is completely ignorant about Star Wars games. Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see how Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will turn out. Perhaps making a single-player game with no microtransactions, the antithesis to EA's egregious approach up until now, will lead toward a path of improvement? Either way, fuck EA.
Apex Legends was apparently well-received because EA didn't tamper with it. Despite its initial and "artificial" surge in popularity, now people have flocked back to Fortnite. Kids really like battle royale shooters nowadays, but they still can't seem to maintain interest in Apex Legends or care about Battlefield V's Firestorm. Fads come and go, but whether EA will ever cease being the worst, evil gaming empire we've seen remains to be seen.
Santa Monica Studio
One year has passed since God of War (IV) released. Santa Monica Studio recently released a video on their Youtube channel thanking the fans. All I have to say is no, thank you Santa Monica Studio. Thank you for making God of War. Thank you for keeping the dream alive and pouring your hearts, souls, blood, sweat, and tears into making this wonderful work of art.
On a lighter-hearted note, I also thank Santa Monica Studio for toning down the excessive, gratuitous, bloody violence/nudity that characterized prior GoW games and not including sex simulators this time around. As funny as these features were in previous God of War titles, at least now I don't have to be as cautious about mentioning God of War when talking to prepubescent or adolescent children about examples of popular media that have incorporated Greek mythology. Never mind, I still do.
Capcom
For a long time, I've loved Capcom unconditionally. Capcom birthed many of the most beloved and popular gaming franchises, including Mega Man, Devil May Cry, Onimusha, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Monster Hunter, Breath of Fire and Okami. Mega Man and Onimusha in particular retain special places in my childhood heart and memories. Hell, Capcom even made DuckTales and other great Disney games like Goof Troop. Then, between the late 2000's and early 2010's, I grew to detest Capcom, after I came to the realization that the company whored out and killed Mega Man. Capcom even went as far as to attribute Mega Legends 3's cancellation to lack of demand and fan involvement. What the hell? In subsequent years, Capcom almost ruined Dante in the Devil May Cry reboot, made the polarizing Resident Evil 6, and released Street Fighter V as an incomplete game. I began to deem Capcom unforgivable.
My how things have changed. In the last two years, Capcom has brought Mega Man back to life in the forms of the Mega Man/Mega Man X Legacy Collections and Mega Man 11 and released several high-quality, well-received games: Resident Evil VII, the Resident Evil 2 remake, Monster Hunter World, and Devil May Cry 5. Oh how Capcom has turned things around! They now clearly understand the importance of making high-quality games that don't disappoint but rather directly appeal to the gamers who love these franchises. Once again, Capcom can be seen as synonymous with quality, as was the case in decades past. Hopefully this continues into the future.
Konami
Arguably the committer of some of the greatest gaming sins in the industry (screwing over Hideo Kojima, internally shaming/abusing its workers, abandoning video games in favor of the gambling business, making Metal Gear Survive...), Konami was once, back in 2013, the only gaming company I openly expressed had never really done anything to piss me off. I mean, Konami created Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, Contra, Dance Dance Revolution, Silent Hill, and even the old-school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle beat-em-up games on the NES and SNES. Up until that time, Konami had yet to do anything truly wrong, I thought to myself, and therefore I jinxed it. Oh the travesties that would later come from Konami and would reduce this once amazing company to the depths of unprecedented ignominy for a gaming company (notwithstanding EA of course).
In 2015, Konami released Metal Gear Solid V. This was a game I thoroughly enjoyed and poured over 120 hours into despite feeling upset that Snake's/Big Boss's voice actor, David Hayter, was replaced for no justifiable reason and that the game's weak plot had so much wasted potential. Nonetheless, the gameplay was superb, leading to MGS V winning "Best Action/Adventure" game at the 2015 Game Awards show. However, Konami banned Hideo Kojima, the creative genius behind the Metal Gear Solid games, from attending the show. Words cannot describe the amount of disrespect Konami has shown toward Kojima and its dedicated employees.
Koji Igarashi, also known as Iga, the man who helped reinvigorate Castlevania with Symphony of the Night (and thereby giving rise to the gaming genre known as Metroidvania), also parted ways with Konami in 2014. With Konami's focus shifting away from mainstream gaming to mobile games and pachinko machines, this disgraceful company felt more than willing to drive away two of its greatest minds and creators, Kojima and Igarashi, whose genius helped Konami establish itself as a successful gaming company in the first place. Konami proceeded to shit all over Kojima, Igarashi, Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, its employees, and its fans. At least Japanese people can visit casinos to play Konami's pachinko machines and see remastered HD cutscenes of Metal Gear Solid 3 and softcore porn using Castlevania characters? Scum of the Earth, Konami is. To add more salt to the wounds of the gaming community, Konami released Metal Gear Survive in an effort to reuse MGS V's assets as a quick cash-grab to capitalize on the faltering popularity of zombie-apocalypse style survival-horror games, to no success. Too ashamed of Survive's failure and existence, Konami refused to address its dismal sales in its 2018 earnings report. Konami, why the hell did you even make this game in the first place? Konami's past success and legacy has been tarnished by its current unethical and insulting business practices. I mean, it doesn't even really make video games anymore.
Recently, Konami has ventured to re-release its older games in compilations such as Castlevania: Requiem, Konami Arcades Classics, Castlevania Anniversary Collection, and Contra Anniversary Collection. These collections serve to remind us how Konami was once a company that cared about making good video games, a long time ago.
Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania remain among my favorite series, but Konami is now the gaming (?) company I personally hate the most. Fuck Konami.
Nintendo and Microsoft
I'll be talking (briefly) about Nintendo and Microsoft simultaneously here, specifically because their recent collaboration warrants intrigue and discussion. So far we have seen Cuphead's release on the Switch, which was one of several games that made me regret not owning an Xbox One. The prospects of this partnership are fascinating because we've never really seen this type of collaboration among the "big three" (Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft) since the beginning of the modern console wars. I'm excited by the possibility of playing more games that were previously Xbox-exclusives on the Switch, or maybe even seeing Nintendo games appear on the Xbox. I find the latter less likely, though, but one also cannot help but wonder what may come down the line, and how Sony feels about Nintendo and Microsoft's recent partnership.
People have argued that Sony has won this console generation, a reasonable assumption based on the sales of the PS4, which are currently over 94 million units sold. In comparison, the Xbox One stands at over 39 million units (both the PS4 and Xbox One released back in 2013). Furthermore, although the Switch is only two years old, it is already approaching 35 million units sold, placing the Switch's sales close to the PS4's during the same timespan. Can Nintendo maintain the Switch's sales momentum, and when will the "mini" (cheaper) and "pro" (more expensive) versions of the Switch console be released?
On a final note, there has been a lot of speculation about the next generation of consoles from Sony and Microsoft in addition to the updated models for the Switch. Reports of the PS5 being backwards compatible would lead me to consider purchasing it on release day, assuming the launch price isn't PS3 levels of outrageous (less than $400 please). For a while, I've considered buying a Playstation 4 Pro, but the possibility of PS4 games running just as well, or better, on the PS5 has led me to abandon this notion. Certainly, with the upcoming new console releases looming around the corner, 2020 will be an exciting year for gaming.
What companies like EA and Konami teach us is that when executives become too blinded and misguided by the "for-profit mentality" in favor of creating high-quality games that make gamers happy, the result is often a shit show. Needless enforcement of microtransactions, rushed developments, mistreatment of employees, forcing employees to work 70-100 work weeks, shunning and antagonizing fans, whoring out your company's iconic franchises... these are all habits of ignorance, immorality, and sin. Realize the irony: when a company values profit over quality and ethics, the result is often poor sales, financial losses, and widespread frustrations and anger. I don't think it is wrong to ask gaming companies to ensure that they treat people right and have their hearts and minds in the right place when making games. Santa Monica Studios is a great example, and I believe Capcom's recent success can be attributed to their willingness to learn from their past mistakes.
I realize that there are still other companies and studios that I haven't addressed in this piece, but I think I'll have future editions of gaming industry progress reports. Food for thought for another time.
