What do you see becoming the gaming debacle of the year?

[DeadDuck144]

eurogamer got angry because ps4 owners will get to play some of sony's ps5 games

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My memory was that people were upset that Xbox games were going to be crossgen, with the idea being that current gen hardware would hold back next gen. Sony kind of jumped on that bandwagon to score points, claiming something along the lines of "We're making our games to focus on NEW hardware". Then a few months later, they showed that they were actually doing something similar to Microsoft. Eurogamer just pointed out the hypocrisy.

Not a huge deal and certainly not a debacle of the year contender in 2020 in my opinion, but Eurogamer's criticism was fair.

 

[Deleted member 17388]

Avengers flopping

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This deserves a mention, but it also qualifies for 2019 since it had a mixed reception from the start: Its reveal and the whole voice cast trailer.

 

[cyrribrae]

What do you mean by gaming debacle? If you just mean the biggest negative thing, then of course it's COVID. But, debacle has a different connotation than that - it's like biggest blunder, hottest mess, most egregious action taken by people. And in that vein, I have to vote for the FGC in this list.

But, perhaps more broadly the me too reckoning throughout all of gaming - don't forget that twitch and indeed all the streaming platforms got hit hard with all sorts of heinous abuse allegations. Oh yea, and what about everything at UBISOFT???

 

[Jeepman87]

Too early to call? We have a few months left. :)

 

[daegan]

It's the Summer Game Mess (thanks Jeff Grubb for the excellent nickname.) The cancellation of E3 could've been pretty normal had everyone been ready to talk, but instead following along and figuring out where folks were announcing things was pretty much a part-time job. To say nothing of having to sift (or sit!) through nothings like Gamescom hyping up Ratchet gameplay when it was just a tiny bit more than what we had already seen. I get where it might be easier for some folks but all of the fun and excitement was gone, replaced by checking emails and a calendar and hoping for ANYTHING.

The Ubisoft & Lab Zero & FGC situations go beyond "fucking up my video games" and are deeply concerning and disappointing on a human level. I don't try to quantify those alongside things like people shipping broken things or lying about stuff or whatnot; I think they're different discussions (what is a disappointing GAME thing and what is a DISAPPOINTING game THING.)

 

[Captain of Outer Space]

E3 shitting itself to death when COVID-19 hit.

 

[twdnewh]

The Covid option is very general.

The Epic vs Apple thing is so memorable for how poorly it turned out for Epic so far.

 

[MRYEAH]

My vote is Covid
but 2020 is not over we have launch weeks for the new consoles and possible shipping delays for some defective consoles along with new games we hope have no terrible beginnings or busted next gen patches
If any of these occur they could definitely move to to the top of debacle list
Here's to hoping nothing bad happens
(Toast)

 

[gaiadyne]

How is the UbiSoft Sexual MIsconduct Scandal not on the list?

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This is a good one

 

[Dphex]

The Avengers is definitely up there.

colossal screw up to deliver an alpha state game for full price. besides that, the game is dull af.

when the movie industry can delay movies for another year, the gaming industry should take a note instead of delivering broken nonsense.

 

[Arthands]

I'll say Sony's 69.99 price tag/Spider-Man remastered issue should be up there

 

[Dodgerfan74]

COVID isn't really a gaming story. It's bigger than gaming even if gaming is effected by it.

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Basically.

The worst gaming related thing of the year was the FGC/Ubisoft. The rampant sexual misconduct is disgusting. Competitive smash turning out to be grooming plus some occasional video games is beyond horrifying.

 

[Theswweet]

I voted for FGC, because as someone smack dab in the middle of that community it has, by far, been the biggest gaming-related shitstorm this year. I understand others will feel differently.

 

[AuthenticM]

COVID is such a big thing that it's kind of apart from the rest of the options here. It's also not really a "debacle".

 

[Fabtacular]

Covid cancelled all the gaming conventions this year which sucked.

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Funny how many people celebrated that going into summer. People really bought into the idea that "now the conferences won't have to compete with each other and everyone will have their time to shine."

Instead, whereas during traditional E3's I would have tuned into (or at least followed rumors / threads for) EA and Ubi's conferences, they just passed completely beneath my radar and I feel like that goes for lots of people here.

I really hope that next year all six conferences (MS/Sony/Nintendo/EA/Acti/Ubi) can arrange to do everything in a day or over the course of two days. They don't have to do live conferences, but it would be great to just have them scheduled to coincide at roughly the same time but not overlap.

Like, how great would this be? Schedule it on a Saturday (so everyone can watch), and run it all day:

10:30am: Microsoft
12:00pm: Ubisoft
1:30pm: EA
3:00pm: Activision
4:30pm: Nintendo
6:00pm: Sony

(You could swap Sony/MS if you wanted to make the Sony stream more accessible for the European market.)

And this could be great for all the gaming outlets as well. They could run marathon livestreams and hosts guests during the downtime. It could just be a really cool celebration of gaming event that E3 has traditionally been, but without all of the overhead of actual E3.

 

[Rosebud]

I wouldn't call COVID a "debacle".

I'll say Sony's 69.99 price tag/Spider-Man remastered issue should be up there

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But no one cares anymore

 

[Mecha]

The only right answer is Covid with some honorable mentions like the whole Ubisoft situation and the whole FGC situation.

My vote goes to Covid not for the cancelation of on person events, but for how it has affected the livelihood and projects of the many people involved in this industry. In a way though I'm glad that many companies put their employees first and adapted to a work from home environment.

Also, some options on the poll are just laughable at what some here consider a "debacle" a lot of non issues there.

 

[Kalik]

how about Cyberpunk 2077 not living up to the hype?...the system requirements already are pretty mid range for a game meant to melt our current hardware...7 years of development time is crazy long and the hype and graphics might not live up to the billing

 

[AniHawk]

how on earth is covid-19 cancelling gaming events a bigger deal than how human beings were treated at companies or within communities?

 

[Soj]

Should be the Ubisoft scandal, but knowing the Internet, it will end up being the puddle reflections in the Spider-Man remaster or something.

 

[Ramsay]

It's MeToo throughout the industry. Special mention goes to the Fire Emblem Youtubers flat-out victim blaming after allegations against their friends were made.

TLOU Part 2 is a distant second, both for the game being a massive disappointment and the puerile reaction from the alt-right which has made it impossible to hold a good-faith discussion on the game.

 

[ArjanN]

I feel this poll demonstrates that people don't know what debacle means.

Debacle only really applies to Covid if you look beyond the gaming industry. Game delays/E3 cancellation because of Covid is not a debacle, that's just a sensible response to a disaster.

 

[sredgrin]

I don't think covid really counts for gaming. If like, E3 happened and tons of people went and it became a superspreader event, sure. But for the most part, gaming handled covid well, and it's doesn't appear to be an industry that lost tons of jobs to it (well, maybe if you count Gamestops closing).

It might have made E3 events boring and some games get delayed, but that's pretty minor in the scheme of things.

 

[Van Bur3n]

Ubisoft housing a bunch of awful people.

 

[Deleted member 19742]

Count me in on the opinion that the COVID stuff, in terms of the gaming industry, isn't a blunder/debacle of human error. E3 being cancelled and announcements being...kind of annoyingly and awkwardly spread out throughout that time was a bit bothersome, but I wouldn't call it on the level of some of the other entries on the list, with the Ubisoft shit in particular bein' real bad.

 

[ArjanN]

I don't think covid really counts for gaming. If like, E3 happened and tons of people went and it became a superspreader event, sure. But for the most part, gaming handled covid well, and it's doesn't appear to be an industry that lost tons of jobs to it (well, maybe if you count Gamestops closing).

It might have made E3 events boring and some games get delayed, but that's pretty minor in the scheme of things.

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Yeah, this.

Debacle implies some sort of failure.

 

[Faith]

I'd say it's the whole Ubisoft sexual harassment and abuse scandal coming to light. Like others have said, I don't think the whole Covid thing really counts.

 

[Lion]

Spiderman face change.

They have lost my vote.

 

[Karlinel]

Next gen pre-order shitshow should be a (leading) option.

 

[twdnewh]

Also the nVidia 3080/3090 launch

 

[Redcrayon]

If we're talking 'debacle' or something like 'industry fail of the year', I don't think Covid really counts- it affects everyone.

I'm also not sure how general consumer stuff like the reaction to the PS5/Halo game reveals or whatever made the list but Ubisoft, through a mix of misconduct and crunch, didn't. I could see the FGC/metoo being the worst too, both will hopefully have wider industry effects to begin to address such systemic issues, or at least raise awareness of them.

 

[Glio]

COVID is of course an extremely important issue but on a global level, how it has affected video games does not matter as much to me as how it has affected other things. Like, yes, there have been delays and the marketing has been weird but it does not seem like something that serious within everything that has caused COVID. For example in the film industry has been much more disruptive.

I vote MeToo, the people who took advantage of the FCG culture to prey on minors are horrible.

 

[nib95]

I sort of think Covid shouldn't be included there. Whilst it does affect gaming tremendously, it isn't really specific to gaming, and is instead more of a global or general issue that is all encompassing.

 

[Dan Thunder]

Honestly wouldn't call most of those a debacle. For various reasons for me personally only the PS5 showcase and Halo delay qualify. Out of those Halo Infinite is the main one for me, it was going to be their big launch exclusive and flagship game. They said that it was going to be a launch title and then a couple of weeks later said it's going to be held back to the next year. That was just embarrassing. Completely understand the reasoning behind it but farcical nonetheless.

 

[Protome]

Seems bizarre to me that the Ubisoft stuff isn't in the poll but whatever the PS5 showcase fallout was is (genuinely not sure, people on the last page said it's because a couple of games are cross-gen? really? that qualifies compared to the others on this list lol?)

Honestly, it should be the impact of Covid and the MeToo stuff in the FGC because holy shit the stuff that came out of that was messed up.
Realistically, people are probably going to remember the time Halo looked a bit subpar and they delayed it.

 

[AIan]

Definitely Covid. This horrible pandemic will be one for the books.

 

[Winstano]

The 30 series launch is pretty damn close to the top... Between severe shortages, crashing controversies, manufacturers scalping their own product on eBay and a delay to the lower entry cards... It's not been great

 

[Greywaren]

I mean, anything other than the literal global pandemic pales in comparison.

 

[pbayne]

The response to Steve

 

[Wollan]

COVID is the big thing of course but it is hitting every industry, it's not a gaming isolated event.

The MeToo cases are awful.

Halo got delayed a year because of the reveal and underlying production, leaving the Xbox with no launch exclusives. That's bad planning/execution on multiple levels.

The biggest gaming news I would say was Microsoft buying Bethesda which is a clear signal that the industry consolidation race is now on (bad).

Facebook accounts is now a requirement for Oculus VR.

 

[braisbr1]

I think that Covid should win this - it had a hand in Craig, the PS5 reveal and even on the leak and epic Vs Apple to a lower extent.

 

[Dinoegg_96]

It should be the FGC MeToo.

Emphasis in should

 

[HBK]

Putting aside the fact that I don't find very healthy to revel into "debacles" (and trust me, I'm one of the most critical dudes on the planet), for me it'd be the still going strong console warring when we're getting what seems to be two amazingly built next-gen consoles, and under covid-crisis at that!

We'll see if there are nasty surprises in store in a year or two, but for maybe the first time in console history, we'll be getting two consoles with very comparable performance profiles, what seems to be well engineered cooling solutions (so hopefully they'll be silent AND reliable), and very powerful hardware from the get go (I know they'll be put in their place by high-end gaming PCs, but still, they're far from shit this time).

So why the warring? 🤷‍♀️

 

[IIFloodyII]

No Ubi's option? (sexual assault, sexism, toxic leads/workplace, bad management, leadership turning a blind eye to it all).

Don't think I'd consided Covid a debacle like the others either as really nothing the industry could do differently and I think it was handle very well for the most part once people realized it's not something you can just write off. Also it'll be just as impactful on 21 too.

 

[braisbr1]

Next gen pre-order shitshow should be a (leading) option.

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I am aware of the PS5 preorder situation, but for Xbox it was (at least for me) quite a smooth experience. They said preorders would open at 10 am CET on the 22nd of September if I recall correctly, and that's when I preordered my unit with no hiccups other than a slow Microsoft store website presumably due to the incoming traffic.

 

[Ferrs]

It's got to be FGC but sadly that got forgotten too quickly. We had child rapists and even the gaming version of Eipstein in there and barely anyone remembers, and the press didn't really made enough noise too.

 

[JoelStinty]

It's TLOU2.

Maybe not specifically the leak, just everything to do with TLOU2.

It's the TLJ of gaming for now lol.

Any thread created would very soon turn into a shithole.

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I don't know, it felt like at first, but since it's release and people have had time to play it and see that some of the leaks were wrong or misconstrued the sensible side ofpeople has come through and the unpleasant furore around it as died down. TLJ discussion went on for months and months. Don't really see much complaining anymore re TLOU2. I did see one the other day on a Facebook post but it only reminded me of what happened.

Pre- release was really unpleasant though. Feel
Sorry for the devs who had to go through that, but also people of different sexualities having to read the tirade of shit that coming from people's keyboards. It got pretty nasty.

See the game won out though, 60% completion weight and I enjoyed the discussion about the game after people finished it. Personally loved the game.

 

[Seijuro]

Next gen console, game and launch plan reveals going at a snails pace and dropping at the last minute.

Which in turn means probably E3 getting cancelled due to Covid is the real DotY.

 

[Karlinel]

I am aware of the PS5 preorder situation, but for Xbox it was (at least for me) quite a smooth experience. They said preorders would open at 10 am CET on the 22nd of September if I recall correctly, and that's when I preordered my unit with no hiccups other than a slow Microsoft store website presumably due to the incoming traffic.

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I'm gonna guess you are american? No offense, simply it looks like the EU got shat on.

 

[JoeNut]

TLOU2 leak was pretty damn huge