10 Times Publishers Screwed Over A Video Game
7. Conker
It didn’t feel right to put Conker’s Bad Fur Day as the title here, seeing as that was a brilliant game with no real publisher nonsense. However, just singling out one post Bad Fur Day version of Conker felt wrong too. It was the very character himself who was bastardised and focus grouped into a husk of his former glory.
Originally made by British company Rare, Conker passed to Microsoft when they bought the development studio in 2002. The urban legend goes that Microsoft mistakenly thought Rare owned Donkey Kong, and thus thought they were getting one of gamings most iconic characters.
Given how they shafted Rare’s creations afterwards, that wouldn’t be a huge surprise if it were true.
Microsoft elected to simply remake Conker’s Bad Fur Day, censoring out the more controversial parts. Then, allegedly thinking the character was too cute for an adult game and too crude for a children’s game, sat on it for nine years.
When he reappeared, he was a goofy, squeaky clean squirrel acting as the mascot for Project Spark. Not the send off he deserved.
Banjo-Kazooie was another casualty in Microsoft’s acquisition of Rare, though with an appearance in Smash, the future looks promising.