9 Most Controversial Video Game Moments Of 2017

Did someone say microtransactions?

Star Wars Battlefront 2
EA

Loot boxes. Overpriced DLC. Season passes. Microtransactions.

An endless sea of detestable buzzwords has been grabbing the gaming headlines for all the wrong reasons this year, stuffing your lunchtime news feed with bulletin after bulletin bringing to light yet another story about money-hungry publishers doing their best to milk consumers dry.

Destiny 2, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War and Assassin's Creed: Origins, among others, have continued to walk the cash-laden path, but it's EA that has the biggest target over its head, thanks to Star Wars Battlefront 2. The internet continues to direct its collective outrage over the growing level of monetization in triple-A titles at the publisher's door, to the extent that it has been forced to renege on the original model envisioned for DICE's shooter set in a galaxy far, far away.

Fascinating to watch unfold, the scandal has been - and the plot will no doubt only get thicker - but at the same time, we shouldn't let it distract us from some of 2017's other colossal missteps. There's been plenty of them, after all.

From Microsoft's foot-shooting decision to cancel one of its only first-party exclusives, to hardware faults and PR disasters, upsets of all different flavors populate 2017's gaming calendar like a stubborn stain in the toilet bowl. Get the bleach ready, we're going in.

9. Nintendo Switch Launch Stock Hit With Hardware Faults

Star Wars Battlefront 2
Nintendo

As far as disastrous hardware launches go, the record for Nintendo's reputation-saving hybrid console is squeaky clean, certainly in comparison to some of the worst offenders (red rings of a certain deathly quality come to mind) that consumers have been saddled with over the years, but it hasn't escaped unscathed.

Not long after launch, early adopters of the new tech discovered that one-half - always the left - of the Switch's Joy-Con controllers struggled to record player input when disconnected from the console.

Following a series of complaints from customers with voided warranties, no doubt, Ninty responded to the worrisome hiccup, describing the issue as a "manufacturing variation," but offering no repair or returns scheme to rectify the problem.

The Big N eventually did a U-turn on that policy, offering those affected the chance to send their faulty product back for repairs, but there was no need - the 'fix' involved placing a neatly-cut square of conductive foam inside the left pad to boost its weak wireless signal.

It goes without saying, of course, that the so-called 'variation' - i.e. 'we forgot to put the foam in a batch of launch stock' - hasn't reoccured since.

Funny, that.

Contributor
Contributor

Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.