Hottest Mess 2023: September Update

I agree that Dark and Darker needs a mention. It's such a weird situation that they have to try to drum up sympathy by publishing the game themselves, with pretty much exactly the trappings that people hate Nexon for. It's a whole thing among the Tarkov-esque streamers.

I agree that Unity is bad, real bad. I also think we're dealing with recent bias, however. A company putting its foot in its mouth happens yearly. The Overwatch stuff (as one group) is worse imo, as it's just an endless string of colossal fuck-ups; especially since it's a game that's had an infinite amount of time to rectify itself.

The nature of the Microsoft leak is big but I dunno... it's a vibe check but it just doesn't seem like as much of a Mess.

@efesell: I'm an attorney and I know something about the kinds of firms that do work for companies like Microsoft.

Let me tell you that this mess is extremely hot. I can only imagine the conversations being had right now about this enormous fuck up. It may not be a hot mess for Microsoft's gaming future but it is an extremely hot mess.

@daavpuke: What makes the Overwatch 2 thing on my personal list, is I believe they intentionally lied to the public and fans of the original game. The whole "we're making a PvE focused sequel with personal character story arcs" was just a smokescreen for their real agenda, to relaunch the game as a microtransaction heavy free to play game. To me, that is just dirty tactics, and its sad some people believed their excuses, then they eventually admitted the PvE was not going to happen like they promised. It's also a slap in the face of the people who actually bought the original game. There is a reason OW2 has lost a lot of players. I, myself, have yet to play OW2 since its so-called launch.

Definitely feels like the year of corporate violently shitting the bed. I realize that's kind of every year, but still.

Some housekeeping notes for the final update (late November):

• [Modify] Final Fantasy XVI - I'm splitting the issues with the game itself (see Rorie's comments) with a larger Square-Enix issue.
• [Remove] EA FC 24 reactionary idiots - I don't think this story ended up making any impact aside from "losers get mad online for a couple of days". No need to clog up the list, we have more than enough.
• [Combine] Overwatch 2 and Overwatch League - Given that OW2 rolled out the way it did to appease OWL commitments, I feel that these should be merged. It's hard not to see the links between each, but I'm open to keeping these separate if people feel strongly about it.
• [Remove] Testament: The Order of High Human - I don't think a single person cares about this game, hard to be a mess.
• [Remove] Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - That one trailer was really bad but it wasn't really a mess. Stupid corporate reaction, but there's a chance it works out for them next year (or whenever the game is released).
• [Modify] Unity - There have been a lot of updates, so I'll be attempting to capture the most important parts next time.
• [Add] Dark and Darker uses assets stolen from Nexon, so Steam delists the game.
• [Add] Only Up! steals art assets from random artists in a more technically advanced way, so Steam delists that game too.
• [Add] Mortal Kombat 1 gets a comically awful Switch port, which may be a flimsy pretext to use that Mileena picture that's been going around.
• [Add] Microsoft and Sony accidentally reveal long-term plans and details by failing to properly redact documents submitted during the FTC vs. MS case. Obviously the MS one is fresh (and almost certainly more embarrassing to the company), but remember that terrible black Sharpie? That was fun.
• [Add] Square-Enix (see above). My draft for this is: "Square-Enix is perpetually disappointed in their own decisions, loses significant value".

This will take us from 25 candidates in the OP to... 26 candidates in the final draft. I'm sure we'll get something else to note before then. I think it'll come out before The Game Awards, so maybe I'll add a prediction that it gets yet another stage invader.

Recency bias speaking, but I feel like right now it's Lars Wingefors (Embracer) and John Riccitiello (Unity) wrestling in a puddle of mud over a trophy inscribed with "most incompetent CEO"

Unity did a big ol' walkback. Not a complete walkback, which is what they actually should have done, but at least for the time being devs who were mid-cycle making a game aren't completely screwed now. They've changed their new policy so that it only applies to projects made using an LTS (long-term support) version of Unity that will be released next year and after so current projects and Unity-based software that's already released are no longer covered by the new policy. Furthermore, as long as developers continue to use the same version of Unity without updating to the 2024 LTS version, they will be beholden to the TOS for the version of Unity they are using, not whatever is changed after.

For those creators on Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise, we are also making changes based on your feedback.

The Runtime Fee policy will only apply beginning with the next LTS version of Unity shipping in 2024 and beyond. Your games that are currently shipped and the projects you are currently working on will not be included – unless you choose to upgrade them to this new version of Unity.

As for the policy itself, it has been massively softened. Now the revenue cut Unity wants is either a flat 2.5% of revenue or a fee for each new user. It also only applies to games that made over a million dollars in revenue in the previous 12 months, so older games that no longer crack a million dollars in sales yearly and and small indie games won't be covered:

No game with less than $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue will be subject to the fee.

For those creators on Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise, we are also making changes based on your feedback.

The Runtime Fee policy will only apply beginning with the next LTS version of Unity shipping in 2024 and beyond. Your games that are currently shipped and the projects you are currently working on will not be included – unless you choose to upgrade them to this new version of Unity.

...

For games that are subject to the runtime fee, we are giving you a choice of either a 2.5% revenue share or the calculated amount based on the number of new people engaging with your game each month. Both of these numbers are self-reported from data you already have available. You will always be billed the lesser amount.

They also have made further concessions for the free tier targeting indie devs suggesting that at least someone there has understood the magnitude in which they've fucked up in their alienation of indie developers.

Our Unity Personal plan will remain free and there will be no Runtime Fee for games built on Unity Personal. We will be increasing the cap from $100,000 to $200,000 and we will remove the requirement to use the Made with Unity splash screen.

Removing the requirement that games have to have the "Made With Unity" splash screen is a surprising thing as they've never budged on the requirement and supposedly there were a lot of cases where devs/publishers were paying for Unity specifically to get rid of the splash screen.

Obviously Unity has already burned a bunch of bridges and will have to do a lot more to win back the trust of the developers and studios that made up the customer base of the company. This seems like an at least somewhat okay start in that it does have a lot of the things that developers were demanding in it. I still think they will need to get rid of some of the senior leadership who approved of the policy despite what was apparently a ton of pushback from within the company if they want to have any chance of winning back trust. Riccitiello shouldn't be running the company anymore. A fuck up on this magnitude should end his career in the industry, but given how this industry is it probably won't.

On a lighter note, I nominate Megan Fox and her horrible voice acting performance in MK1. It's bad enough her acting career tanked and she is mainly known now as a blood drinking girlfriend to an equally pathetic Machine Gun Kelly, but her not even being able to do a basic voice performance right makes the whole situation a hot mess. It also proves why hiring so-called celebrities to do voice acting for a game, just because of their name and not talent is wrong.

@av_gamer: Say what you will about Fox and her skills, but her career tanked because Michael Bay tanked it. Hard (and maybe a little cruel) to make a person the hottest mess just for being not great at their job (especially because one of the reasons she's probably not great is lack of work experience/rust from being nearly blackballed for having the gall to criticize a director).

@sethmode: I don't think that Megan Fox's performance is the hottest mess (especially because Mortal Kombat is intentionally cheesy so it fits) and obviously what happened to her was not fair and Michael Bay sucks....but let's not pretend that if not for him she'd be some amazing actress. I think she is good in certain roles but she's worked a fair amount since the whole Baysplosion and there are LOTS of actors with a lot less experience who are much better. She's had the money and lessons to continue taking acting lessons (I don't mean that as a knock, lots of great and successful actors continue taking classes to hone their skills) and she's worked more than the average SAG member.

I think a lot of actors tend to phone in this kind of voice role if it's not something they're passionate about or experienced doing and I think Megan Fox has always been an actor whose strengths are physical (I'm not talking about her appearance but rather her ability to use body language and facial expressions rather than voice to emote and embody a role.)

She was cast to get people talking about the game, and it worked, but let's not pretend it's Michael Bay's fault it was a bad performance.

Hey, it happens to even really good actors who have been working a lot. We all remember Peter Dinklage in Destiny. But this is a bad performance and it's the fault of Fox and whoever was producing/directing her performance.

@bigsocrates: I wasn't really trying to say she was blameless, but Bay did basically his best to exploit and discard her. More than anything I was just trying to establish that a semi-washed up actress who is probably by her own definition at least a little bit of a hot mess, doesn't really qualify because her acting career is a bit of a disaster and she is not so good in her latest voice role. Even if she were just plain bad it would be a bad inclusion in a year like this.

@sethmode: I hear you, and for the record, I knew she wasn't actually going to be added to the list. I was just making fun and pointing out how her bad performance is making people second guess the whole celebrity voice acting thing just because the person has a name. And while I don't like what Michael Bay did, it was actually a lot of the creepy stuff she admitted to being into, like the aforementioned drinking blood and other occult stuff that really turned people off to her. Keep in mind, a lot of Hollywood people do this kind of creepy stuff, but she said the quiet part out loud.

ah, so good to see another organic authentically real person who also defines a topic of discussion 63 responses in. and the fifa scam non-sequitur- very sweet, indeed.

@mellotronrules: I like to mentally cast every AI response as a flopsweat-drenched teen delivering a report on a book they didn’t read. “Webster’s Dictionary defines a ‘mess’ as…”

Okay, I know this isn't really a hottest mess contender, but I also think "Bobby Kotick bringing James Corden to an all-hands meeting" is a hot mess both conceptually and as a sentence. https://www.polygon.com/23912652/activision-all-hands-james-corden-bobby-kotick

The Day Before 100% belongs on the list! THE PEOPLE DEMAND IT!

@bigsocrates: While I did not include that statement and new wrinkle into my poll, I just posted the Hottest Mess community vote a few minutes ago! The Day Before is included, along with a few new entrants from a messy fall.

https://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion-30/hottest-mess-2023-communitys-choice-pick-3-1916597/

@allthedinos: I'll allow it just this once so long as you edit in the context but I've got my eye on you. Closing down a whole studio definitely adds heat to the mess!

Ahh crap I guess I was late to this news. I just posted about it in the community thread lol. That's a tough way to end a year.

@bigsocrates: It looks like I can't edit the poll, unfortunately. I guess I should have waited to post about this until later, there's always a new mess in 2023...

@allthedinos: The true hottest mess is the GIANT BOMB HOT MESS LIST THAT CAN'T BE EDITED! GASP! TWIST!

Actually it's Unity.