10 Times Publishers Sabotaged Their Own Video Games

9. Forcing Microtransactions Into Shadow Of War - Warner Bros.

2014's Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was a pleasant surprise for Lord of the Rings fans. The title, headed up by Warner Bros' Monolith Productions, was a competent and enjoyable action game elevated by something the studio called the 'Nemesis System', a unique gameplay element that generated unique enemies to make each individual player's experience different to everyone else's.

It was a fun game, and so naturally WB decided that a sequel should be made. Great! Fans thought. The first title was enjoyable but it was clear that there was so much more Monolith could do with the license, including improvements to boss battles and a more intricate version of the factional conflict that was in the first game.

Sadly, the story of the sequel proved to be anything but a fairytale - and not in a good, Tolkein-ish kind of way either. Sexy Shelob notwithstanding, it seems as though pretty much every bad decision that contributed to Shadow of War's controversial launch came from WB themselves. Microtransactions blighted the entire game from start to finish, with many even claiming that the sequel was effectively pay-to-win.

Even though WB did eventually remove loot-boxes from Shadow of War around mid-2018, the damage had already been done.