As overhyping becomes more of a thing in the video game industry, the director of the Ori games has called everyone out for it.
We’re living in an age of video games where the marketing of a title is becoming just as important as the title itself.
Vying for a spot in an increasingly crowded video game marketplace is becoming more difficult for publishers and we’ve hit the point where conversations about overhyping are starting to be had.
Case in point: the whole Cyberpunk 2077 launch and subsequent backlash from gamers over how the marketing misrepresented what was actually in the final product.
And now this overhyping conversation has gotten a massive shot in the arm from Moon Studios’ CEO Thomas Malher, best known as the director of the brilliant Ori And The Blind Forest and its equally brilliant sequel Ori And The Will Of The Wisps.
In a scathing post on resetera titled ‘”Why are gamers so eager to trust and even forgive the snake oil salesmen?” Malher expressed his frustration over the amount of overhyping that goes on in the video game industry. targeting industry veteran Peter Molyneux, No Man’s Sky developer Sean Murray, and Cyberpunk 2077 studio CD Projekt RED.
In addition to calling Molyneux, Murray and CD Projekt RED over their “lies and deception,” Malher also slammed journalists for “happily [playing] along, each and every single time.”
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“It all started with Molyneux,” began Malher’s lengthy forum post. “He was the master of ‘Instead of telling you what my product is, let me just go wild with what I think it could be and get you all excited!’ – And that was fine until you actually put your money down and then the game was nothing like what Peter was hyping it up to be.”
The Ori director then targeted Murray, who was the director of 2016’s No Man’s Sky which was heavily criticised at launch for being far from the game that was promised, stating that “apparently had learned straight from the Peter Molyneux handbook.”
“This guy apparently just loooooved the spotlight. Even days before No Man’s Sky released, he hyped up the Multiplayer that didn’t even exist and was all too happy to let people think that No Man’s Sky was ‘Minecraft in Space’, where you could literally do everything (you being able to do everything is generally a common theme behind the gaming snake oil salesmen, cause hey, that sorta attracts everybody!).
Obviously there was massive backlash when No Man’s Sky finally released and the product being nothing like what Murray hyped it up to be. But what happened then? They released a bunch of updates, so let’s forget about the initial lies and deception and hey, let’s actually shower him with awards again, cause he finally kinda sorta delivered on what he said the game would be years earlier. Thanks, Geoff Keighley. Rewarding that kinda behavior will surely help the industry grow stronger.
And finally, Malher took aim at CD Project RED for the troubled launch of Cyberpunk 2077:
And then came Cyberpunk. Made by the guys that made Witcher 3, so this shit had to be good. Here’s our Cyberpunk universe and – trust us – you can do fucking everything!
Here the entire CDPR PR department took all the cues from what worked for Molyneux and Murray and just went completely apeshit with it. Gamers were to believe that this is “Sci-Fi GTA in First Person”. What’s not to love? Every video released by CDPR was carefully crafted to create a picture in players minds that was just insanely compelling.
They stopped just short of outright saying that this thing would cure cancer. This strategy resulted in a sensational 8 million pre-orders. What happened then was this: [YouTube link]. The product was a fraction of what the developer hyped it up to be and on top of that it barely even ran on consoles that it was supposed to ‘run surprisingly well on!’.
Malher then ended his note by stating how “gamers and journalists don’t really seem to mind all that much” in the end and how he hopes his post will start a discussion on the issue of overhyping among developers.
After getting all this off his chest, Malher then sort of walked back on his comments a bit and admitted that he “screwed up,” stating how he wasn’t “thoughtful” in how he expressed his views nor did he “choose the right tone or platform for it.”
Read his response below.
https://twitter.com/thomasmahler/status/1357445038142324737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
