12 Controversial Video Game Scandals That Rocked The Industry

8. Peter Molyneux Does Nothing With $500,000 In Kickstarter Money

Kickstarter is a terrifying thing when in the wrong hands, and as much as I love the likes of Peter Molyneux, David Cage and all other creatively-minded individuals, Molyneux's disastrous efforts in relation to his Populous-esque 'god game', Godus, are the epitome of a disaster.

Starting with a widely-released app named 'Curiosity', it was declared that whoever got to the centre first (by tapping thousands of times) would be granted the role of God in the game. How? We didn't know, but what was clear was Godus (the game Curiosity was supposedly a gateway to) had amassed 500,000 dollars in Kickstarter-backed cash.

That would result in one of the finest games of all time, right? Wrong.

Work on Godus moved at a snail's pace, with Molyneux announcing the team had signed with a publisher (the sort of thing you don't do when you've already got the cash) as well as announcing multiple new projects, and not saying a word about when the game may be finished - or just what the hell all that money was spent on.

Curiosity winner, Bryan Henderson, revealed that "being a God" in the game amounted to getting shown around the studio's offices before being bought a pint down the local pub, and to this day, the game remains in Steam 'Early Access', having had various community/fan members head into 22 Cans' offices in an attempt to get it working.

You can read an scathing interview with Molyneux about all his failings over on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, but bring the burn ointment, because the opening question is "Do you think you're a pathological liar?"

I mean... there's "shots fired", and then there's a point-blank assassination. Damn.