10 Upcoming Video Games That Are Already Controversial
Is Unrecord beautiful, problematic, or both?
Even the simplest video game is a complex beast in its own way - the result of thousands of creative and technical decisions which eventually result in a releasable product. Hopefully, anyway.
But the nature of games development - where titles are often teased and marketed for years before finally being released - means that there's a ton of runway for developers to make a negative impression with players for one reason or another.
And sometimes this leads to a genuine controversy as players are left to decide whether or not they want to give their hard-earned cash to a game that's catching some major, typically justified flak.
And these 10 video games have all certainly courted their fair share of undesirable PR in recent times, from publishers blatantly exploiting their own fanbase to games that are hitting dangerously close to home, and at least one game that may or may not actually be a scam.
While it's absolutely possible that some of these games will satisfy paying customers in the end, at present there are absolutely reasons to be concerned about what's being cooked up. As ever, though, we'll have to wait and see...
10. Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
A Suicide Squad video game should basically sell itself, yet Warner Bros. and Rocksteady have had a hellish time bringing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League to market.
The game was first announced in August 2020, though the lack of substantial gameplay shown off in the years that followed left many fans skeptical.
And once images of the game's UI leaked this past January - suggesting it would be heavy reliant on live-service elements - it was unfavourably compared to Square Enix's recent superhero live-service flop, Marvel's Avengers.
But the most worrying blow came in February, when a more extensive gameplay reveal showed the game to follow a conventional looter-shooter gameplay loop, which many felt wasn't especially fitting for the Suicide Squad.
This, combined with Rocksteady quietly revealing that their game would be always-online even when playing solo, caused a major uproar online, enough that in April, it was delayed from May to February of next year.
While Rocksteady will presumably take this time to respond to player feedback, it simply isn't possible to reshape a game's core experience in just nine months, so Warner Bros. may ultimately be delaying the inevitable by pushing this thing back.
Either way, keep your expectations low, wait for reviews, and for god's sake don't pre-order it.