4. Mass Effect 3 - Ending
Has there ever been a bigger controversy in gaming? When Mass Effect 3 was released we were promised a culmination of all the decisions we had made in the two previous games. An ending which could be completely personal to you, your choices and your moral standing. This was the case - if you only knew one other person in the world and they chose the ending you didn't. For everyone else it was a big fat lie. To be fair to Bioware, was it ever going to be possible to create an ending which satisfied everyone and deliver on all the promises made prior to its release? Perhaps not. But it is entirely possible to create an ending with some closure and a final mission which didn't amount to an A or B decision - especially when you have been telling the fans that that is precisely what you wouldn't do. This is the danger when you create a whole other universe and populate it with characters we actually care about. The revolutionary feature of carrying your decisions over from previous games may have led to some unfair expectations surrounding the climax, but if that is the case, don't reinforce those expectations in your pre-release interviews. The impact of ME3's ending should not be underestimated. Some fans threatened to sue Bioware, others complained that it had ruined the entire franchise and some even set up a petition to change the ending. The fact that this strategy actually worked, with Bioware releasing an extended ending via free DLC, highlights how much a bad decision in gaming can mean life or death for your franchise.