10 Recent Video Game Disasters Developers Apologised For
8. PlayMagic Apologised For The XIII Remake Being An Absolute Mess
There was a lot of excitement when cult classic 2003 FPS XIII was announced to be getting the remake treatment.
However, that enthusiasm quickly cooled once the first screenshots and gameplay footage were released, making it clear that developers PlayMagic had significantly reworked the game's iconic cel-shaded art style to be more "realistic."
After a year's worth of delays, the XIII remake was finally released last November to vitriolic reviews from both press and players, complaints stemming from the art style changes to the addition of a weapon limit, and also the presence of many, many bugs.
It wasn't long before XIII was stuck with an "Overwhelmingly Negative" consensus on Steam, and less than a week after the remake was released, PlayMagic and publisher Microids issued a joint statement apologising for the end product:
"First and foremost, we would like to offer our most sincere apologies for the game's technical issues. In its present state, XIII does not meet our quality standards and we fully understand players' frustrations. The pandemic has impacted the game's production on many levels. Pivoting to home working for the teams has added unexpected delays in the development schedule and the QA process. We hoped we would be able to provide a Day One patch fixing all the issues but the development of this update is taking more time than expected."
While the pandemic has affected the development of many video games over the last 18 months, it hardly explained or excused the remake's unnecessary changes from the original.
Though updates did fix some of the technical issues, many frustrated fans responded by purchasing the original game on Steam instead.
Astoundingly, this led to the 2003 version outselling the remake during its first week on release in the UK. Talk about voting with your wallet.