10 Recent Video Game Disasters Developers Apologised For

The video game industry sure is a fascinating and complex beast, and one still in its relatively infancy compared to every other major art form.

It's perhaps no surprise, then, that video games are a lightning rod for controversies and major PR gaffes, where developers, publishers, and marketing teams find themselves in hot water for disastrous and incredibly public mistakes.

Screwing something up is one thing - and some of these are pretty damn unforgivable - but how that screw-up is then dealt with makes all the difference.

As much as companies never want to admit responsibility for anything and risk opening themselves up to legal action, in the case of these 10 video game developers, they each fell on their swords and apologised to the masses that they'd swindled, offended, and shown not a shred of respect for.

Some of the apologies clearly came from a genuine place of contrition and were largely accepted by fans, while in other cases even the apology itself was criticised by incensed players for feeling generic and insincere, with insufficient steps made to truly put things right...

Cyberpunk 2077 finally hit shelves late last year, though the game's long-anticipated launch was beset by massive issues across the board, namely an abundance of bugs on all platforms, and notably poor performance on last-gen consoles.

Developers CD Projekt Red were raked over the coals for the especially shameless decision not to release any gameplay footage from the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game, effectively attempting to conceal their performance problems until the game was on the market.

The blowback was significant enough that the developer issued an apology just four days after Cyberpunk 2077's release, fully copping to the fact that they didn't release any last-gen gameplay footage. They said:

"We would like to start by apologising for not showing the game on base last-gen consoles before it premiered and, in consequence, not allowing you to make a more informed decision about your purchase. We should have paid more attention to making it play better on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One."

CD Projekt Red also agreed to refund any player left dissatisfied by their purchase, and a month after the game's releaser, CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwinski also issued his own personal apology to fans.

To some the apologies were seen as genuine, while others felt that they were wholly emblematic of the culture of hollow corporate apologia, and also of undercooked games being rushed out the door before they're ready.