The developer of the wildly controversial shooter game Hatred recently announced that the game was coming to Nintendo Switch. This game follows a trend of violent third-party titles seeing release on the Switch, in something of a first for Nintendo. The Switch has seen releases of games like The Witcher III, DOOM (2016) and its recent sequel DOOM Eternal, as well as the Bioshock and Borderlands series.
Hatred first released for PC in June 2015. It was announced in October 2014, but the trailer garnered so much controversy that the game was removed from Steam Greenlight. This decision sparked even more controversy, and eventually compelled Steam to reintroduce it to their service, and send a personal apology letter from Gabe Newell himself to the developer, Destructive Creations. Hatred is a shooter game with an isometric camera reminiscent of the Diablo series and other RPGs. The game stars an unnamed man who despises human society and decides to set out on a "genocide crusade," ending as many human lives as possible before dying himself. Destructive Creations explicitly intended the game to be a response toward what they perceived as a trend toward political correctness in the video game industry. This intent, as well as the unabashed violence of the game's trailers, is what sparked so much controversy upon the game's announcement. When Hatred finally released it was to largely negative reviews, with publications calling the game uninspired, repetitive, and simply boring.
Hatred lives on, though, and is now getting a very unexpected second chance in the spotlight. Destructive Creations has announced on Twitter that their spiteful creation is coming to Nintendo Switch, following a more vague tease a few days prior. In their post they displayed a photo of a Switch with Hatred's main menu on the screen, and asked their followers "Are you waiting?" No details were given concerning whether the game would get a physical release or a purely digital one, and a release date has not been announced.
Such a controversial and poorly received game seems an odd choice to port to Switch, especially so long after the game's initial release. Even with Nintendo's newly increased acceptance of mature titles, Hatred feels like a different beast. It is a game specifically made to push back against mainstream values, some of which Nintendo seems to value quite highly, not just political correctness but also vivid color. Nintendo's games are some of the most colorful on the market, and such an intentionally drab, violent game feels wildly out of place on the Switch, even when held next to the other violent games it features. Doom Eternal might be just as gory as Hatred, but no one would accuse it of lacking vivid color.
Still, as the comment section on the Twitter announcement indicates, the game is not without its fans. Even after such an ignominious social media presence and plenty of negative reviews, Hatred has a following. Numerous points could be made about the game's approach to satire through hyper-violence, or if the game can be called satire at all. Still, even more could be said about the statement Hatred makes against games being considered art, and whether that alone means this game should be considered art. Ultimately these conversations, while potentially edifying, don't matter. The only really important question is, do people like the game? And if the answer is yes, as seems to be the case, Hatred should do just fine when it releases on Nintendo Switch.
Source: Destructive Creations