12 Controversial Video Game Scandals That Rocked The Industry

5. Everything About #GamerGate

Quite possibly the biggest stain on the history of gaming, unpacking precisely what Gamergate 'is' can be Herculean effort in itself.

Basically, it's two issues rolled into one. First, there was a lengthy blog posted online defaming indie developer Zoe Quinn, who had in her personal time, slept with Kotaku writer Nathan Grayson. So far, so fine - until people took it as a jumping-off point to accuse the press of literally being in bed with the games they review.

Every high-scoring game on IGN, Kotaku etc. you don't agree with? They were paid off, obviously.

Alongside this, we had the rise of Feminist Frequency, a Youtube channel headed up by Anita Sarkeesian; a rather vocal feminist who shot to the front of the public conscious by addressing many sexist issues prevalent in the industry. As a result of both things at the same time, Quinn started receiving a ton of hate mail, as did Grayson, Kotaku, Polygon etc., for the assumed relationships between press and product.

It blew up even further into all sorts of editorials being written about why forum posters are routinely so insensitive and barbaric in general when it comes to phrasing and treatment of women online especially, creating a tsunami of coverage that - at the heart of it - was an attempt to discuss favouritism when covering video games (probably).

Good luck finding that, however, as even an army of White Walkers couldn't surmount this ice-cold wall of sexism and vitriol.