There have been a lot of strong feelings about the recentCyberpunk 2077and CD Project Red controversy that sparked a lot of discussions on ethical marketing in the video game industry. For those who may be out of the loop on theentireCyberpunk 2077development and refund debacle, the game was heavily flawed on last generation systems despite the development team claiming otherwise before release.
Now, one prolific game director took the time to call out these unethical practices in a lengthy, strongly-worded post. Thomas Mahler, the director of the twoOrigames, has called out theCyberpunk 2077andNo Man’s Skydevelopment teams as “snake oil salesmen” for providing false promises to consumers before launch.
RELATED:Ori and the Will of the Wisps Protects 29,000 Acres of Rainforest Via Fundraising Efforts
The post comes from Mahler himself via the Resetera forums. Mahler begins the post explaining that he’s been continuously frustrated by situations involving dishonest video game marketing for some time now, saying he believed it became a problem beginning with Peter Molyneux.Molyneux has been embroiled in multiple controversiesin the past for misleading consumers via marketing, with Mahler saying he “gets consumers excited” by telling them what the product could be instead of telling them what it actually is. Mahler claims that both journalists and gamers liked listening to Molyneux’s empty promises until he released “some pretty damn shoddy games.”
Mahler then moves on, calling out Sean Murray of Hello Games by claiming Murray loved the spotlight afforded to him byNo Man’s Skytoo much. Most readers will rememberNo Man’s Sky’s negative reception upon releaseafter failing to live up to pre-release hype. During this portion of the post Mahler explains that claiming players will be able to do everything in certain games is “generally a common theme behind the gaming snake oil salesmen.” Mahler also calls out Geoff Keighley while discussing theNo Man’s Skysituation, owing to his involvement in the Game Awards.
Mahler implies that rewarding this kind of behavior down the road is detrimental to the games industry, referring to Murray andNo Man’s Skywinning a Game Awardfor the best ongoing game of 2020. Finally, Mahler discusses the recentCyberpunk 2077debacle, implying that many people assumed CD Projekt Red would deliver withCyberpunk 2077thanks toTheWitcher 3’s sterling reputation. Mahler claims every trailer and bit of pre-release material forCyberpunk 2077was carefully crafted to entice players with what the game could be, without showing the reality of the stateCyberpunk 2077. Which, to be fair, is the basic premise of what any given marketing trailer for a product is supposed to do regardless of the ethical implications.
Mahler’s post continues, going into detail about this situation from a developer’s point of view, calling out journalists and gamers again, and expressing confusion on why situations like this continue. Still, hindsight is 20/20 and it’s much easier to call out these practices after the fact, when many more people are left disappointed and are eager to express that disappoint after being misled. Mahler makes good points in his post and is clearly passionate about the situation, but the reality is that thisCyberpunk 2077situation is not nearly as black and white as some may think.CD Projekt Red’s co-founderhas since owned up to the game’s failings and promises the studio is working to fixCyberpunk 2077, but it could be too little, too late.
