At times, a video game’s negative legacy and reputation isn’t the result of bad design philosophy or development alone, but of outside factors as well. Certain titles are known more for their legal disputes than anything else, such as the video game adaptation of the slasher classic Friday the 13th.
The multiplayer game about Jason Voorhees came to a close in 2020 for reasons well beyond the development team’s control, making it more interesting as a cautionary tale than a well-made movie-based game. Unfortunately, Friday the 13th isn’t the only game to be cursed with a legal burden.
Friday The 13th Fell Victim To A Copyright Spat
Universal acclaim and fan approval didn’t save Friday the 13th from being prematurely ended, which was just one of many victims of the franchise’s complicated rights dispute. Right now, the original movie’s writer (Victor Miller) and director (Sean S. Cunningham) are battling over who owns what elements of Jason Voorhees’ series and their respective royalties.
This ongoing fight is the reason why any rumored new Jason-related projects have been stuck in purgatory for years, and why developers IllFonic left early despite promising dedicated development. Some cut Friday the 13th content includes necessary patches and fixes plus skins and maps based on Jason X, which fans were looking forward to.
Cyberpunk 2077 Was Broken On Release
The once-hyped Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t just the latest entry on this list, but one of the most controversial as well. Basically released incomplete, glitch-ridden, and borderline unplayable on last-generation consoles, Cyberpunk 2077 ended CD Projekt Red’s spotless reputation and fan adoration overnight.
Following a slew of problematic refunds, recalls, scathing reviews, controversial work practices, and half-hearted apologies, CD Projekt Red was slapped with a class-action lawsuit. This was filed by their investors, who took issue with the publishers’ lies about the game being finished and their projected financial losses. Reportedly, Cyberpunk 2077 lost nearly one billion dollars’ worth of potential income and revenue.
Fallout 76 & The Canvass Bag Debacle
Fallout’s move to online multiplayer was a disaster of unseen proportions that killed both the Fallout franchise and whatever good faith Bethesda once had. Fallout 76 was a barely functioning mess on launch that Bethesda refused to pay for refunds, leading to a class-action lawsuit accusing them of deceptive trade practices.
Without exaggeration, there are literally too many controversies to list here but the tipping point was the special edition. What gamers got instead of the advertised canvass bag was a cheap nylon sack not worthy of a hefty $200 price tag. Worse was how Bethesda-approved influencers reportedly got canvass bags, resulting in a rushed recall that leaked buyers’ contact information when the support website bugged out. DLC reportedly improved the game, but not by much.
No Man’s Sky Was Accused Of False Advertising
Hyped up as one of the most ambitious next-gen games of its time, No Man’s Sky was released with the barest minimum amount of effort imaginable. Players had almost nothing to do in the game’s empty galaxy, where they were stuck endlessly mining for useless resources instead of embarking on their own space odyssey as promised.
This led to a lawsuit accusing the games’ developers at Hello Games for false advertising, with the missing features shown in the trailers used as evidence. Hello Games was eventually cleared of all charges, but this left a permanent stain on the company and No Man’s Sky that can’t be washed away by the game’s marginally better downloadable content.
Grand Theft Auto's History Of Lawsuits
A Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game without controversy is practically naked, given that the series basically thrives on bad publicity. Over the years, GTA attracted lawsuits ranging from the weird to the serious. Some include: Michael “Shagg” Washington and Lindsay Lohan accusing the games of stealing their likenesses, the city of Chicago filing suit against GTA IV’s train ads, and fans suing GTA: Online for delaying content by two weeks.
The most prominent cases are, of course, Jack Thompson’s moral crusade and the Hot Coffee scandal. Thompson, a disbarred lawyer, used GTA as a scapegoat when he tried and failed to ban all violent video games. Hot Coffee, meanwhile, was San Andreas’ sex minigame that cost developers $20 million in settlements and got the game an Adults Only rating. The mod was edited out, thus reinstating San Andreas’ Mature classification.
Too Human Killed Its Studio
Too Human wasn’t just plagued by lawsuits, as it was killed by them. Long story short, developers Silicon Knights accused Epic Games of withholding a proper version of the Unreal Engine 3. Epic countersued, saying Silicon Knights used their engine despite not giving proper payment and credit in the finished product. Ultimately, the courts sided with Epic.
Not only was Silicon Knights forced to pay roughly $5 million as compensation, but all copies of Too Human plus any game in development with the Unreal Engine 3 were to be recalled and destroyed. Surprisingly, this didn’t stop Too Human from becoming a freebie on the Xbox One’s archive of backward-compatible games.
Silent Hills Was Erased From Existence
It’s impossible to articulate the hype for Silent Hills, the long-awaited Silent Hill reboot from auteur game director Hideo Kojima. The game only got as far as a well-received PT (ie. Playable Teaser) but after Konami’s public fallout with its gaming division and Kojima, Silent Hills has been wiped out of existence.
Konami pulled Silent Hills from all digital stores, giving newcomers no chance to experience it while leaving those who downloaded it with a glorified trailer. Any attempts to recreate PT (ex. a fanmade PC game, a VR mod, etc.) were squashed by Konami, including eBay sales of PlayStation 4s with PT installed. Kojima and his Silent Hills collaborators went on to make Death Stranding, while Konami revived Silent Hill as a pachinko machine.
Mortal Kombat Was Accused Of Inciting Murder
Like Grand Theft Auto, the fighting game Mortal Kombat thrives on negative press. The games attracted lawsuits regarding the use of actors’ likenesses without their consent and pay disputes. At one point, Mortal Kombat became the topic of a Congressional hearing due to its violence. However, these pale in comparison to the time it was accused of inciting murder.
In 1997, thirteen-year-old Noah Wilson was murdered by Yancy Salazar. Andrea Wilson, Noah’s mother, sued Midway, claiming that Yancy was obsessed with Mortal Kombat and copied Cyrax’s Fatality. Midway was cleared of charges, with the court citing that Mortal Kombat’s violence was protected by the First Amendment. This incident tainted the franchise forever and galvanized the debate about violence in video games.
Star Wars Battlefront II Was Considered Online Gambling
What should’ve been the grand return of a beloved Star Wars game instead became a lightning rod of controversy. On release, Star Wars Battlefront II was unplayable due to its intentionally tedious leveling system that forced players to buy loot boxes to advance. EA failed miserably in trying to justify this, leading to the most downvoted Reddit comment in history.
Battlefront II is considered to be the death knell of rampant microtransactions since its brazenness finally got governments to take notice. Regulation boards from Australia, Belgium, Hawaii, and the Netherlands concluded that Battlefront II promoted online gambling and used it as a basis for laws curbing what EA called “surprise mechanics." Battlefront II got off with a warning from the European Union, but it never recovered since.
Devotion Got Blacklisted By China
Devotion is a critically-acclaimed psychological horror game that’s impossible to play thanks to China. Because of an asset that mockingly compared Chinese president Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh (something he hates), Red Candle Games was forced to remove Devotion from Steam under threat of legal action from the communist government. Worsening matters is that the developers are based in Taiwan, which has heated political disputes with China, to say the least.
In late 2020, Devotion was set to return through CD Projekt Red’s online store GOG, but the developers immediately reneged the announcement and deal following Chinese authorities' demands. This controversial move happened just a few days after Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous launch, making CD Projekt Red's terrible week even worse.