10 Video Game Studios Gamers Have LOST Respect For

10 Video Game Studios Gamers Have Lost Respect For

Welcome to MojoPlays and just like the ship of Theseus, these studios are shells of their former selves and may never be what they once were ever again.

Xbox Game Studios

Is this an Xbox? Is that an Xbox? Yes! The youngest console brand on the market, Microsoft and the Xbox instantly made a name for themselves with games like Halo, Forza, and Gears of War, but after the wildly successful Xbox 360, they stumbled out of the gate with the Xbox One and have never recovered. Despite numerous acquisitions of big-name studios and GamePass, Xbox Game Studios hasnt become a name synonymous with quality. Big name studios under the Xbox banner have been routinely shut down, while legacy franchises are shells of their former selves, and studio The Initiative, which was formed specifically to rival Sonys first party output, hasn't put out a single game in almost a decade and even needed Crystal Dynamics to help them get the Perfect Dark reboot going. Its no wonder everything is an Xbox now as thats basically the only way Xbox can survive these days.

Gearbox

Gearbox is a studio that has had no shortage of controversy over the years. Whether it was the blatant mis-marketing of Alien: Colonial Marines or their severely outspoken and controversial founder Randy Pitchford, players have been slowly distancing themselves from Gearbox for years. And its not as if their games have really been pulling players back in either. With titles like Battleborn, the revived Tales from the Borderlands and Tiny Tinas Wonderlands all failing to find or maintain an audience, Gearbox only has the mainline Borderlands series to fall back on. Borderlands 3 was a substantial drop in quality when compared to Borderlands 2, with completely forgettable villains that failed to make an impact the way Handsome Jack did as well as a How do you do, fellow kids? kind of humor that immediately fell flat. Even the hype around the upcoming Borderlands 4 is virtually non-existent outside of only the most die-hard fans.

Warner Bros. Games

Warner Bros. Games should be one of the biggest producers of hits within the industry. With access to countless licenses of beloved properties such as DC, Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat and Lord of the Rings, Warner Bros. Games are sitting on a goldmine of ideas but routinely sabotage themselves with their own greed. Despite successes like Hogwarts Legacy, WB Games has leaned HARD into live service, microtransaction-heavy titles and essentially destroyed any goodwill their properties might have had through name recognition alone with their insanely greedy, boardroom-approved tactics. Something like the incredible Nemesis System should have been included in a myriad of their titles and represented a new and exciting mechanic for the industry, but instead WB Games patented it, used it for two games, then shut down the studio responsible for its creation, locking it out of any further implementation. Corporate greed will be the death of creativity.

Ubisoft

Its been quite a tumultuous time for Ubisoft in recent years. Beyond the controversies and accusations of harassment within the studio, Ubisoft hasnt put out a single hit game since Assassins Creed Valhalla, with even big names such as Avatar and Star Wars failing to pull in prospective players. The simple fact is that Ubisoft isnt interested in making games anymore and has become complacent with recycling content inside of safe, recognizable franchises and titles. Standouts such as Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown were given almost no marketing push and failed to find an audience. Ubisoft itself routinely attacks gamers for pushing back against their lack of innovation and overuse of the Ubisoft Formula while continuing to put out broken and buggy games ad nauseum. Recent financial failures such as Star Wars Outlaws and Assassins Creed Shadows are evidence enough the formula has grown incredibly stale and generic. Players dont equal sales, Ubisoft.

Rocksteady

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Rocksteady was once an industry juggernaut, especially after the Arkham games, with the series highly influential combat mechanics becoming an industry standard and the definitive Batman experience for millions of fans. And yet, all that goodwill the studio earned with its fans immediately fell off a cliff with the reveal of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. While initially intriguing due to its premise, reception quickly soured the more gamers learned about the title. A multiplayer-focused, live service, battle pass and microtransaction-laden game felt more like something designed by committee rather than a group of passionate developers. The fact that the studio heads jumped ship during development wasnt a reassuring sign either and naturally the game was met with universal disdain from fans who wanted another single player experience from the storied studio. Now, almost no one is even remotely excited for the studios next game.

Bungie

Bungie became a household name with the Halo series defining the first-person shooter genre on consoles, but after five Halo games, the studio set out to make something new and embrace a new Destiny. Initially, reception to this new venture was mixed as while the shooting was as solid as ever, many ideas were half-baked, and the usual Bungie lore was almost non-existent. Bungie stuck with it however and turned the series around only to run it into the ground once again. With constant changes to game mechanics, an overabundance of microtransactions, and each subsequent update feeling less substantial than the last, Bungie and Destinys fan perception has been less than stellar. With news of Bungie revisiting the Marathon series that initially gained the developer recognition, fan expectations were once again on the rise, only for them to reveal yet another generic extraction shooter wearing the skin of the Marathon franchise.

Nintendo

Once one of the most beloved game companies in the world, Nintendo has repeatedly taken all that goodwill and spit in the face of its many dedicated fans. Routinely sicking their team of lawyers on fan creations as a show of force, Nintendos once family friendly image has been replaced with one of corporate greed and manipulation. Alongside bumping the price of games up to $80 for no reason, Nintendo has attempted to copyright every game mechanic under the sun and has even targeted its biggest competition in Palworld for embarrassing Nintendo and GameFreak for their failure to innovate on the Pokemon franchise in years, suing the developer for copyright claims they only patented after Palworld became a success. Die-hard Nintendo fans will continue to buy all the re-released games at premium prices and defend the company, but the larger fanbase is slowly beginning to turn on the gaming giant for its completely anti-consumer practices.

Square Enix

Square Enix was once one of the most successful producers of hits in the industry. Franchises like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and even Tomb Raider and Deus Ex made Square Enix millions in sales and profits. However, enough is never enough and Square Enix routinely called these games underperformers, even selling off studios and IPs they deemed unworthy of meeting their ridiculous financial goals. And, instead of lowering their expectations and leaning into these successful IPs, they instead turned to NFTs, live service games and expecting only the highest of highs from games that they themselves would routinely sabotage with greedy microtransaction-heavy practices. These days, nothing is good enough for Square Enix and theyve canceled numerous projects fans have been hoping for, while also shutting down studios that suffered from their own poor decisions.

Bioware

Bioware was once the undisputed king of western RPGs, but now the companys entire future might be in jeopardy. Renowned for classics such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect and Dragon Age, the company has struggled to rekindle that Bioware Magic and hasnt released a title worthy of note since Dragon Age: Inquisition in 2014. Failures like Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda have turned fan reception against them while the recent release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard made it very clear this is not the same Bioware that crafted some of the most beloved RPGs of all time. With multiple studio heads and developers leaving the company either of their own free will or due to downsizing, Biowares future is hanging by a thread and even the upcoming Mass Effect 4 might not be enough to save the company from its inevitable, but also self-inflicted fate.

Naughty Dog

Once regarded as one of the highest profile studios in the industry, Naughty Dog had floundered under its new leadership this entire generation with no signs of things turning around. Not only has the studio not released a single new game this entire generation, they have re-released both entries of The Last of Us multiple times within the same console cycle. With a canceled live service game and only one new and original game seemingly planned for the PS5 (which might not even release this generation), Naughty Dog is running on an unsustainable model. While the company has IPs they could easily revisit such as Uncharted, Jak and Daxter, or even something new, Naughty Dog is instead spending seven years or more developing a single title which needs to be a massive hit to keep up with this ludicrous development cycle and fan sentiment is already turning against the studio no matter the games quality.

Which video game studio do you no longer have any hopes for? Share your thoughts in the comments below.