As promised, Polish developer Techland released a video today updating the world about the state of the zombie parkour thriller Dying light 2. and it’s an extremely concise view of one of the most toxic cycles underlying the video game industry.
In the first half of the about three minutes video, a number of Techland developers have read comments full of profanity from fans demanding the game’s release or at least proof that it still exists. “FUCK THIS BULLSHIT !!! Drop dying light 2 or give a fucking GOD DAMNIT demo, ”says one of the messages.
So, the second half of the video starts with one of the developers stating calmly and sincerely: “Okay, guys, we get the message. We understand that you are curious about the game because you want to Dying light 2 be as good as you imagined. “
The developers explain that Dying light 2 it’s a great game, a complex game, the kind of game that is difficult to make (note: they all are), and that the studio just needs a little more time to bring its ambitious creative vision to life, especially after a year full of unique challenges and tragedies resulting from the current pandemic. The second half of the video is defensive, bordering on apologetics, apparently in an attempt to placate the more energetic and virulent fans of the next game.
“All of us here are putting our hearts into delivering a game that you will continue to play for months,” said one developer as if he were filming a hostage video.
“We are proud to have fans as dedicated as you are, no matter how you express your feelings,” said Tymon Smektała, the game’s chief designer, nearing the end, completing the unhealthy cycle of codependency in video game marketing.
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“Normalizing this crap or playing with it makes the industry worse for everyone,” he wrote GamesIndustry.biz editor Brendan Sinclair on Twitter today. He’s right.
We’ve seen this happen dozens of times before. A certain segment of game fans love a developer to the point of bombarding him with death threats because a game was delayed or, God forbid, had the wrong ending. However, some of the biggest game studios and publishers continue to cater to these hyper-online and super fickle “fans” because they will also spread the gospel of E3 marketing on social networks and private chats, scold non-believers, and be ready to launch a harassment campaign at any time if the rating scores are not as expected.
Dying light 2 was first revealed during Microsoft’s press conference at E3 2018, three years after the launch of the first game. It looked cool. An automatic demonstration that I saw even caused this there may be some interesting world-building going on in addition to the standard zombie survival tricks. But the game never had a set release date, and at the beginning of last year Techland announced would be delayed indefinitely. So some Dying light 2 fans have apparently begun to abuse the game’s developers, and now Techland is trying to win them back, including a small teaser to help them until the studio is finally ready to announce more.
We saw this exact scenario happen last year with Cyberpunk 2077. After the game was postponed for the third time in late October, senior game designer Andrzej Zawadzki and others reported being bothered by the news. “I will burn you alive if you don’t launch the game,” said one of the death threats he shared a screenshot. That was several weeks later Bloomberg first reported that the developers of CD Projekt Red were being forced to work mandatory overtime to finish the game, and several weeks before some Cyberpunk 2077 fans would go crazy about insufficiently positive reviews of the final game. The game quickly sold 13 million copies and was quickly removed from the PlayStation Store for performance issues. even though years of edgelord marketing, plummeted out of NPD sales charts. Who exactly was attended to by this whole messy cycle?
And we’re still seeing that again with Dying light 2. Months after the delay, Polish outlet PolskiGameDev.pl reported that development was not going well, and that the studio was struggling to deliver on its promise of a dynamic and changing world. Last month, The player reported that the project suffered from a lack of direction and cited a series of incidents in the studio that pointed to a toxic management standard in Techland. Last week, the studio tweeted, “We announced the game very early, but it is far from a development hell.” Techland’s leadership sold a dream for what Dying light 2 it might be for fans years ago and now it’s a nightmare fueling dumb commentators and potentially deeper problems in the studio.
Eventually, the game will be released (the new video says 2021) or not. It can be good, bad or very good. Whatever the outcome, I hope that the obvious and very visible issues surrounding Cyberpunk 2077, Dying light 2, and games with similar weapon fanbases will convince creators to stop relying on the circus hype for years to promote their games. Or, at least, stop agreeing with the worst parts of the fan base that he tends to create.