Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're taking a look at 10 game companies who have sadly
00:12lost what made them great.
00:19Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to Mojo
00:23Plays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:28Square Enix
00:34Square Enix has been a bit of a mixed bag over the last several years.
00:37If you only play the games that their internal teams develop, like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth,
00:42then you probably haven't had too many issues with their habits.
00:45However, diehard Square Enix fans have had it rough.
00:48The publisher has seen a plethora of mismanagement problems between making Crystal Dynamics turn
00:53Avengers into a live service game and releasing new JRPGs within weeks of each other.
00:59Seriously, we saw several titles launch, from them alone, between late 2022 and early 2023,
01:07one after another.
01:09The scramble for immediate cash has just caused Square Enix's products to basically compete
01:14against each other, which has only further divided players and revenue.
01:19Where is the thought behind their decisions?
01:21Perhaps the newly appointed CEO Takashi Kiryu can turn things around, but the vocal advocacy
01:27for AI usage in developing games has us deeply concerned.
01:36Bungie
01:41For a while, it seemed as if Bungie was on top of the world.
01:44Not everything has been rainbows and sunshine since buying themselves out of Activision
01:48Blizzard and getting acquired by Sony.
01:51Unfortunately, a lot of goodwill was lost in 2023.
01:55The Lightfall expansion for Destiny 2 was not what players were hoping for, but what
01:59really deflated and angered fans was when Bungie went through a sizable round of layoffs.
02:05In October 2023, Bungie laid off around 100 staff members from across all departments,
02:11including talent that had been with the company since the very beginning.
02:15What made the whole situation worse was that these layoffs occurred days before staff were
02:20to receive their cut from Sony's purchase of the company.
02:23At the time of the acquisition, Sony had even forked over an extra $1.2 billion just for
02:30staff members to not leave.
02:32Since these events, those inside of Bungie have spoken to outside sources about the troubles
02:37occurring within the studio, and it is not a pretty picture.
02:45Crystal Dynamics
02:50We wouldn't blame Crystal Dynamics at all for what happened with Avengers.
02:54No, what's burned folks the most is how the studio has handled the Tomb Raider IP,
02:59particularly when it comes to depicting Lara Croft.
03:02We can understand some of the problems in how Lara was sexualized, but the issue was
03:06committed by some of the marketing teams for the truly awful Tomb Raider games.
03:11For some reason, Crystal Dynamics seems as if they're trying to right wrongs that never
03:16actually happened.
03:18Back when the studio was working on the 2013 reboot, there was this really weird adversity
03:23is sexy approach that made the game feel strangely perverted in some areas.
03:29Even with that mishap behind them, their antics after being snatched up by Embracer Group
03:33has not filled anybody with confidence.
03:43Game Freak
03:49We're not quite sure what happened after the 3DS years, but man, Game Freak has been
03:54fumbling the ball on Pokemon for quite some time now.
03:57It's gotten to the point where indie devs have been eating the bigger company's lunch
04:01with hits like Temtem, Pal World, Cassette Beasts, and many others.
04:06From the disastrous launch of Pokemon Sword and Shield to the even more catastrophic bug
04:11fest that was Violet and Scarlet, Game Freak just hasn't been able to put out a quality
04:15Pokemon title and has failed to evolve in the ways fans have been begging for years
04:20now.
04:21They struck gold with Pokemon Legends Arceus at least, maybe the sequel to that will be
04:25the new direction for the IP in the video game space.
04:34BioWare
04:41The previous generation was really rough for BioWare.
04:44Mass Effect Andromeda was already a mess when it first launched in 2017, you can't rely
04:49on that BioWare magic forever, and yet they did during the development of Anthem, which
04:54was a train wreck when it released in 2019.
04:57We're honestly shocked that Electronic Arts didn't shutter the studio.
05:01BioWare has been toiling away at the next Dragon Age game and a proper Mass Effect 4
05:06for some time now.
05:07Question is, with so many of BioWare's original staff members gone, is there even a shred
05:12of the DNA remaining?
05:18Warner Bros.
05:19Games
05:25Ever since Warner Bros. was acquired by AT&T in 2022, it's felt like Warner Bros.
05:31Games has been on a downward spiral.
05:33Sure, we got a smash hit in Hogwarts Legacy, but the same cannot be said for Gotham Knights,
05:39nor Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League.
05:42For some unknown reason, WB Games has been pursuing the live service model despite so
05:47many titles from its competitors failing miserably.
05:51Even more confusing is the company's stance after taking a massive loss of $200 million,
05:57Suicide Squad being a major contributor to that loss.
06:01Shortly after the game's launch, Warner Bros.
06:03Discovery CEO David Zaslav, yes, everybody's favorite CEO, announced plans to double down
06:09on developing games with live service models.
06:12Oof.
06:14Who's gonna shoot your target anyway, huh?
06:18Limited Run Games
06:25Limited Run Games used to be a purveyor in games preservation, the top choice in getting
06:30physical copies of beloved indie games and exclusive merchandise of those games.
06:35Unfortunately, that cannot be said these days.
06:38Customers have frequently complained about how long they have to wait before orders arrive.
06:43Most cases taking over a year or two to be fulfilled.
06:47Then you have sources telling YouTubers how LRG allegedly creates false scarcity by simply
06:52refusing to print more games when they have the money and capital to print more copies
06:57than they're willing to.
06:59And not too long before we put this video out, LRG came under fire for some copies of
07:04games being printed on CD-ROM discs instead of Blu-ray discs.
07:09And that's all without mentioning the time they fired one of their own simply because
07:13she was excited to play Hogwarts Legacy.
07:15What's happened, man?
07:17Konami
07:27Ever since Konami's falling out with famed game designer Hideo Kojima, the company has
07:32been relentlessly mocked by most of the gaming community.
07:35In its defense, leadership has changed since 2015.
07:39Developing pachinko machines and medical tech is still a part of their massive revenue,
07:43but in the gaming space, Konami's quality and output has seen even more drastic, more
07:48alarming changes.
07:50Metal Gear is basically dead since that god awful Survive spinoff, and the Master Collection
07:55didn't do any of the original games justice.
07:58Castlevania fans are left desperate for a sequel as more TV series and DLC crossover
08:03deals get greenlit.
08:05And for Silent Hill fans, well, two bad games with a possible third bad game does not give
08:10us much confidence in Konami's attempts to resurrect the IP.
08:14Licensing out your legendary IPs is a smart move for a company like Konami, Atari has
08:19been doing the same thing recently, but the difference between the two is that Atari is
08:23finding excellent partners to work with, smaller studios with new ideas who could use the experience
08:28to build portfolios.
08:30What has Konami done?
08:32Remakes, remasters, DLC crossovers, a bad freebie, and a massive misfire in making an
08:39interactive streaming game.
08:41It might not be a bad idea to leave town, actually.
08:46Activision Blizzard
08:47You abdicated your choice.
08:51In the late 2010s, there was already a group of people getting sick of Activision Blizzard's
08:56crap.
08:57From Call of Duty's annual releases to Blizzard botching Overwatch's live service potential
09:02and shuddering Heroes of the Storm, the conglomerate has been losing fans.
09:07Then the 2020s hit.
09:09Workplace harassment, absorbing studios into the Call of Duty coal mines, and a suite dedicated
09:14to disgraced comedian Bill Cosby all led to more and more people abandoning anything with
09:19the names Activision or Blizzard on it.
09:22As soon as the company was acquired by Microsoft, several developers both former and current
09:27spoke out against their former CEO Bobby Kodak, citing numerous times where Kodak forced devs
09:33to integrate microtransactions and online-only policies into games that didn't need it.
09:38We want to believe the company could be on the up and up, but our final entry may get
09:43in the way of that.
09:49Xbox
09:50Ever heard the phrase, all that glitters is not gold?
09:59This is a lesson that Xbox has had a hard time learning ever since the Xbox One reveal
10:04in 2013.
10:05Marketing to the wrong demographic is one thing, spending sprees in hope of monumental
10:10revenue gain is another.
10:12There have been so many screw-ups that it's almost hard to decide where to begin.
10:17The acquisition of Bethesda and its studios, the failure to make Game Pass profitable instead
10:22of sustainable, the closure of Tango Gameworks, the botched launch of Halo Infinite on the
10:28franchise's 20th anniversary of all days, the constant hypocrisy between PR talk and
10:34the company's actions, all of this has led to players villainizing Xbox.
10:40Why own the box if there is clearly a belief in failing upward?
10:45For some, it's almost no different to when Sega eventually left the console market after
10:49the Dreamcast's failure.
10:54Which game company do you feel needs to get their act together?
10:59Let us know down in the comments below in a civil manner, and be sure to subscribe to
11:03Mojo Plays for more great videos every day.
11:15Thanks for watching.
11:16See you soon.