Baldur's Gate 3 publisher warns of industry "division" as Naughty Dog's new game trailer faces backlash

midian182

midian182

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A hot potato: Making a game these days is a stressful job. Not only can a flop ruin millions of dollars of investment and years of work, but there are also instances where the studios responsible have closed as a result. Baldur's Gate 3 publishing director Michael Douse says that 2025 and beyond is going to be an extremely tough time to ship a game, as division seems to be the ongoing trend. One just has to look at the reaction to the trailer for Naughty Dog's upcoming game as an example of what Douse is talking about.

Douse wrote about the state of the video game industry in a post on X. "2025 (and beyond) is going to be an extremely tough time to ship a game, with division spilling into everything. I have one practical piece of advice that may to some seem controversial, but it's crucial: anticipate, don't ignore, or ridicule, or stoke. Figure it out," the BG3 publishing director wrote.

"Navigate the waters even if you think they're unfair, or that the sea shouldn't be so rough. The reality is that it is."

Replying to a comment asking if the "culture war" controversy surrounding so many new games will eventually blow over, Douse says no, noting that increasing obsession with individualism has led to everyone believing they are right. It's also led to the perception of "otherness."

The just-released trailer for the upcoming Naughty Dog game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is a good illustration of what Douse is talking about.

Revealed at the Game Awards, the trailer features lead character Jordan A. Mun, who sports what has proven to be a very controversial shaved head. She's played by Tati Gabrielle, who appeared in the Netflix series You, Uncharted, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and more.

The trailer has 60,000 likes on Naughty Dog's YouTube channel, around half the 144,000 dislikes it has received. The comments have been turned off, but they remain enabled on the PlayStation channel (86K likes, 202K dislikes), where there are numerous comparisons to Concord.

Sony killed off Concord just two weeks after release due to low player numbers, and while the game did nothing to stand out from a crowded market, what many referred to as "woke" character designs certainly didn't help its cause.

The fact Mun has a shaven head also appears to be a big issue for many commenters. And it's likely that even after all these years, a lot of people still haven't forgiven Naughty Dog for some of the plot elements in The Last of Us 2.

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Baldur's Gate 3 publisher warns of industry "division" as Naughty Dog's new game trailer faces backlash

 
Here's a brilliant idea: stop shoving politics, girlbosses, and unlikeable ugly arsehats into games! Wow, what a concept!

Try writing an actual CHARACTER, with actual traits beyond "strong independent girlboss" who has an ARC. Maybe goes through changes. Has a personality with flaws informed by the world around them. Stop delving into stereotypes and harmful caricatures, and actually make something compelling. Make the villain characters good too, we need actual STORIES, with STAKES, with feeling!

You know, basic storytelling ? Nobody cares about your intersectionality or oppression narrative, we've had more than enough failures to know this type of game is total slop and not worth playing. We know when a game is going to be bad, because the political goals of people who push this stuff lead to these games all looking the same, with the same tell tale markers of poor quality. Pattern recognition is a thing, and despite efforts to label this as -ists or -isms, it's something humans are very good at.

And while you're at it, make the characters nice to look at. you know, smex appeal sells. If I wanted to look at a diverse set of obese blobs, I'd go to Wal Mart. Not every game has to be DoA; beach volleyball, but you could try, I dont know, having interesting designs and characters that look human? Look at the concept art for Concord, compare it to the final product. the concept art was actually good. Do that. And ban the millennial writing too. No quips, no marvel humor. every writer needs to have an actual LIFE outside of writing first, so they know what human integrations are outside of their bubble.

I know I'm demanding, but one more thing: STOP ATTACKING THE FANS. They are the consumers of your project, THEY ARE THE REASON YOU HAVE A CUSHY JOB. If they dont like something, take that into account, instead of insulting them and calling them ists, or isms, or phobes, or labeling them as hateful because they didnt like your self insert with more mental illnesses then bio pronouns. It's not that hard.
 
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Theinsanegamer said:
Here's a brilliant idea: stop shoving politics, girlbosses, and unlikeable ugly arsehats into games! Wow, what a concept!

Try writing an actual CHARACTER, with actual traits beyond "strong independent girlboss" who has an ARC. Maybe goes through changes. Has a personality with flaws informed by the world around them. Stop delving into stereotypes and harmful caricatures, and actually make something compelling. Make the villain characters good too, we need actual STORIES, with STAKES, with feeling!

You know, basic storytelling ? Nobody cares about your intersectionality or oppression narrative, we've had more than enough failures to know this type of game is total slop and not worth playing. We know when a game is going to be bad, because the political goals of people who push this stuff lead to these games all looking the same, with the same tell tale markers of poor quality. Pattern recognition is a thing, and despite efforts to label this as -ists or -isms, it's something humans are very good at.

And while you're at it, make the characters nice to look at. you know, smex appeal sells. If I wanted to look at a diverse set of obese blobs, I'd go to Wal Mart. Not every game has to be DoA; beach volleyball, but you could try, I dont know, having interesting designs and characters that look human? Look at the concept art for Concord, compare it to the final product. the concept art was actually good. Do that. And ban the millennial writing too. No quips, no marvel humor. every writer needs to have an actual LIFE outside of writing first, so they know what human integrations are outside of their bubble.

I know I'm demanding, but one more thing: STOP ATTACKING THE FANS. They are the consumers of your project, THEY ARE THE REASON YOU HAVE A CUSHY JOB. If they dont like something, take that into account, instead of insulting them and calling them ists, or isms, or phobes, or labeling them as hateful because they didnt like your self insert with more mental illnesses then bio pronouns. It's not that hard.
Click to expand...

Question: How do you know how said character is written when all we have is a trailer? Its sounds to me like you've already made up your opinion.
 
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Too many employees at game studios are social activists intent on pushing their narratives down everyone's throats.

..and management won't stand up to them for fear of being vilified in the social media echo chamber, being branded as whatever '-ist' or '-phobic' you want to put in front of it.
 
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gamerk2 said:
Question: How do you know how said character is written when all we have is a trailer? Its sounds to me like you've already made up your opinion.
Click to expand...
You may have missed the part about pattern recognition. Naughty dog has a pattern, ubisoft has a pattern, and rarely is that proven wrong. The gaming industry has proven nothing but consistent in it's failures.

fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me three times, you are officially THAT guy. We're far beyond three times now. We know what modern dialog and characters are, and how to spot them.

We know how TLOU2 turned out, we know what Druckmann's preferences are, and we know they fired their lead writed during TLOU2 because she kept pointing out how bad the new characters were, right around the time they were spouting how much they loved women and they needed more women in gaming. so we know their politics too.

Why give an industry the benefit of the doubt when they have so often burned consumer trust? Why continue to give chances to an entity that continues to waste them? At some point, you get cut off, and we're at that point for many consumers.

In this short trailer, we have: 1) the smug millenial writing 2) overt product placement and 3) the nod to the 4b movement, all from a studio with a track record of making bad slop. Pattern recognition.
 
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gamerk2 said:
Question: How do you know how said character is written when all we have is a trailer? Its sounds to me like you've already made up your opinion.
Click to expand...
No one knows for sure until it comes out BUT it's not hard to guess based on Naughty Dog's track record and the general state of the gaming industry.

The answer to avoiding this whole issue is simple...stop importing your personal social justice views into games. It's that simple.

And I would be saying the same thing if the gaming industry were flooded with conservative content. Keep all of it out of gaming. Gaming for most people is about escaping into a different world and forcing the players to see your personal social/political view isn't what they pay for. In the end you're just going to make a lot of people angry and lose money.

It's amazing to me how these companies continue to push this stuff and lose money in the process. Management should be making it very clear that you're not working at the company for you're personal SJW fight. If they can't deal with that then they can hit the road...go work at Bioware where they love to destroy their games for "the fight".
 
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Theinsanegamer said:
Here's a brilliant idea: stop shoving politics, girlbosses, and unlikeable ugly arsehats into games! Wow, what a concept!

Try writing an actual CHARACTER, with actual traits beyond "strong independent girlboss" who has an ARC. Maybe goes through changes. Has a personality with flaws informed by the world around them. Stop delving into stereotypes and harmful caricatures, and actually make something compelling. Make the villain characters good too, we need actual STORIES, with STAKES, with feeling!

You know, basic storytelling ? Nobody cares about your intersectionality or oppression narrative, we've had more than enough failures to know this type of game is total slop and not worth playing. We know when a game is going to be bad, because the political goals of people who push this stuff lead to these games all looking the same, with the same tell tale markers of poor quality. Pattern recognition is a thing, and despite efforts to label this as -ists or -isms, it's something humans are very good at.

And while you're at it, make the characters nice to look at. you know, smex appeal sells. If I wanted to look at a diverse set of obese blobs, I'd go to Wal Mart. Not every game has to be DoA; beach volleyball, but you could try, I dont know, having interesting designs and characters that look human? Look at the concept art for Concord, compare it to the final product. the concept art was actually good. Do that. And ban the millennial writing too. No quips, no marvel humor. every writer needs to have an actual LIFE outside of writing first, so they know what human integrations are outside of their bubble.

I know I'm demanding, but one more thing: STOP ATTACKING THE FANS. They are the consumers of your project, THEY ARE THE REASON YOU HAVE A CUSHY JOB. If they dont like something, take that into account, instead of insulting them and calling them ists, or isms, or phobes, or labeling them as hateful because they didnt like your self insert with more mental illnesses then bio pronouns. It's not that hard.
Click to expand...
You got intersectionality, oppression narrative, no storytelling, no character, from a shaved head and a minute of dialogue?
 
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Theinsanegamer said:
You may have missed the part about pattern recognition. Naughty dog has a pattern, ubisoft has a pattern, and rarely is that proven wrong. The gaming industry has proven nothing but consistent in it's failures.
Click to expand...
Let me translate that for you: Any trailer that didn't involve a white guy, and ONLY a white guy, was going to get attacked by you because it doesn't push your narrative.
 
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Another "IT'S MA'AM" game and it's only Wednesday.

Winning strategy: attack the fans because that will definitely make the MODERN GAMING AUDIENCE suddenly appear and save you.

Goodbye Wokey Dog, hope that ESG money tasted good while it lasted, you won't be missed.
 
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Isn’t the point of any game, to tell an interactive story to an audience? It may be a stray cat on its own or a guy trying to find his girlfriend in an apocalypse or people trying to survival a freezing planet. I see games as an artistic tool for the people making it, just like authors writing books. If people making a game want to tell a story about a balled headed girl who is on a quest and is a bounty hunter, great, go get em. Not my cup of tea, but neither is COD or D4 or Assassin’s Creed.

Why can’t we just let them make their art and not buy it if it doesn’t appeal to us? Why does it need to resort to vitriol? Like what you like and let others like what they like. It isn’t hurting you that this exists.
 
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gamerk2 said:
Let me translate that for you: Any trailer that didn't involve a white guy, and ONLY a white guy, was going to get attacked by you because it doesn't push your narrative.
Click to expand...

I think you're a bit off. Their decision list looks like this:

White guys- Good

Non White Guys- Probably Woke

Traditionally Pretty Women- Good, so long as they act feminine

Bald Non White Women- 100% Woke Trash
 
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I am convinced the "anti woke" crowd will find something woke about anything now days. it doesnt matter. Folks are brain rotted. They cant see beyond anything but red.

Ive seen many of these arguments in various platforms. Its always about a women being the main protagonist. Or how SF has nothing but girl boss's so we added them all up and its complete utter bs. Nonsense. They see one women and cry woke and pushing agenda and all this other nonsense.

There is no reasoning with these folks. Just move on. It is odd how they are obsessed with having things shoved down their throat though.

Good games involve politics. All games have politics. Not once has any of these brain dead anti woke activists ever cried about politics in CoD.

They just want to see nothing but giant muscular straight white men in games and any deviation is wokeified and pushing an agenda.

Hilarious watching the meltdowns every time.
 
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Well if this doesnt prove that gamers are a bunch of pervs I dont know what will, I guess if it isn't 2b or stellar blade girl(or something else half naked and young) they just go into a blind frenzy and I'm saying this as a guy, its pathetic, in so many ways.

it's pretty damn sad the whole argument comes down to "she's not bangable to me so therefore that game is trash".

be better gamers, this is why people laugh at y'all.
 
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ArmorJr said:
This

Crazy white straight religious wacko conservative(alpha toxic macho lol) is the only thing they want...on repeat lol..and If they dont get it the cry like babies <3
Click to expand...
What an absolutely ignorant statement. You're just like the people to criticize only on the other side....welcome to the wacko category.

The reason for this outrage is because everyone sees the writing on the wall. And this is based of what we have seen in recent years from the gaming industry. Pushing sexuality and "white man bad" narratives in media in general has become pretty common.
 
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Ugly, fat, boss girl, submissive/gay guys, non-white people flaunted in unlikely environments. They're all part of a solid heuristic for a game being trash most of the time. Even if the plot manages to have potential, it's mercilessly smothered by the repulsive nature of these tumors and nobody can relate. All of these comments are trying to gaslight away the obvious patterns of hyper liberals. But the patterns prove reliable, lmao.

The Last of Us 2 will never be canonical.
 
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Ohnooze said:
What an absolutely ignorant statement. You're just like the people to criticize only on the other side....welcome to the wacko category.

The reason for this outrage is because everyone sees the writing on the wall. And this is based of what we have seen in recent years from the gaming industry. Pushing sexuality and "white man bad" narratives in media in general has become pretty common.
Click to expand...

Pushing sexuality? White man bad? Wtf are you on? Wacko alert...
 
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Well... My two cents...

When you make a TV series you can target a woke element and that media product will be consumed by a target audience.

The gaming industry have segments that revolves around game genres, so there's no variety of political views on the game industry. The demograph that consumes video games are mostly man with no contact with woke elements, or that already have an opinion against the woke culture. It's almost an homogenous demograph.

It's like making a country music show to a classical music audience... It will not work. Creating an woke heavy video game will not create an audience for it.

Every industry tries to create demand to some kind of product but cracking this homogenous gaming audience may not work, the number of games that would accept an woke video game is too low.

Ps.: A good example, Farcry 6, it has strong woke elements, dictatorship, social criticism and so on, but those fits perfectly in the game story telling. Making a game that it's central elements is woke issues wont float.
 
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I think the game industry is maturing and it splits to different politics and worldviews. This has happened in the film industry since the 1930s. I think it is pretty natural and I welcome the change. We have to remember that shooters during the 80s and 90s were 100% for young male audience. There were the Sierra adventure games, Simcity, Civ, Populous, Sims and others that really wanted to include other audiences from the get go, but it almost seemed impossible at the time. I am not sure when I first came across the first gay character but it was certainly in RPGs... Kotor, Deus X in the 2000s.

As a father I am a bit concerned about role models for young men, and I believe I understand the complexity of the issues, at hand. I don't have any issue of having characters/protagonists that are trans, gay or alien or whatever. I have an issue if there is a portrayal of men as savage *****s, abusers and murders, equally if I see women as bimbos, or gay characters as dubious. Still games are works of art and if there is a game written against men, that's fine. I won't like it, I might write a bad review but I will defend the right for the game to exist.
Outrage and tribalism is pretty annoying and ineffective. We just end up in camps throwing stones to the other side. The most effective way is to calmly point at biases and discuss topics.
 
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