Why It’s A Hard Life For Video Game Creators [OPINION]

It’s quite stunning when one sees the journey video games have gone through. Video game creators have gone from coding games that could only fit around a hundred pixels to games that capture photorealistic displays that leave the player in awe. There has been a great evolution of games and the change has been positive for gamers. But has this change been a good change for video game creators, though? Unfortunately it hasn’t.

The reason for why video game creators have a harder time with the constant evolution of video games is the high demands that their publisher put on them. In order for a creator to get the green light on a project, they must be approved by video game publisher. The publisher will then want to maximize any sort of profits it can get out that project. What this usually entails is a non-negotiable deadline that is hard to make. When a creator is faced with an obstacle like that, they are then prone to cut corners in some way on the project.

For example, rather than releasing all of the content for the game, the developers will instead cut some of them out and sell them off separately at a later date (the term for this is Downloadable Content). The developers may also just cut certain parts out of the game that the creators had originally had planned to implement within the game. This was the case for Mass Effect: Andromeda which was published by Bioware. The creators had to focus on creating bigger and larger map which left minor unfinished details to become more apparent like awkward facial animations and game crashing bugs. This ultimately left fans of the longtime series displeased and betrayed.

Now is it’s understandable for a publishing company wanting to maximize profits for a video game. It’s a multi-million-dollar investment, and they want to utilize every asset that they have on the project. Where the problems arise is when it impacts the image of the game. What this means is that videogame creators have been faced with presenting their project in a certain way, but the final outcome falls way below the standard that the creator originally anticipated.

An example that comes to the mind of many gamers is the infamous Battlefront 2 release. When the trailer for the game was announced, longtime fans as well as newcomers were excited and rightfully so. There was a single-player campaign this time, a cooperative feature and graphics that could put the originally Star Wars movies to shame. On the release of the actual game, players were stunned to find that most of the unlockable weapons and characters could only be unlocked through a random box draw that players had to pay for. In other words, the average player spent around $60 purchasing the game but then forced to invest more money just to get the full experience.

Now how did this happen? Well the company behind publishing the Star Wars games is named EA, and they’re notorious in the gaming industry for changing the term “play to win” to “pay to win”. Fans were so outraged the discussion took to media airwaves and even politics due to the incident possibly be considered “gambling.” But was this the intent of the creators of the Star Wars games? To mislead their beloved fans of the series for corporate greed? Of course, it wasn’t. But, unfortunately, that isn’t how critics and gamers see it. Gamers only see the final outcome of the game, not the time invested.

After all of this, it may seem pointless to do anything but there are ways when it comes to standing up to these publishing giants. Gamers can unite through different media channels and openly discuss the games and their honest feelings of them. When there is a community generating ongoing thought provoking discussion, a momentum can be created. And with a momentum, a change can be imminent.