Developer admits "we screwed it" after game website exposes review blacklist threat

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Miss_Weeboo2648d ago

Fly, you fools!

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HAL900002648d ago

Dead Effect is horrible, the voice acting is so bad it would have been better to just have text, the game play is meh and the leveling up just isnt interesting save your tenner and get a cheeseburger you will be happier.

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IamTylerDurden12648d ago

Supposedly the visuals are decent, the gameplay solid, and the story downright good. Bad voice acting is to be expected and honestly it's something i can live with in a budget game. The rpg elements, space/sci fi setting, multiple characters to play as, intriguing story, and extremely low price point do intrigue me though. I am likely going to drop 11.99 and purchase it today, so i'll confirm how good or bad it is later.

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Christopher2648d ago

But is Dead Effect 2 the same as Dead Effect?

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IamTylerDurden12648d ago (Edited 2648d ago )

Dead Effect 2 is a direct sequel. I think it's ballsy to release an indie FPS in this CoD climate.

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cash_longfellow2647d ago (Edited 2647d ago )

You sir...are now banned from further reviewing any of their future games, lol!

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yomfweeee2648d ago

It is true that there are some reviewers who would shit all over a game for no reason other than to get some clicks. They probably don't deserve free copies in the future. But you can't put it into words like that.

XXanderXX2648d ago (Edited 2648d ago )

Wow talk about having a big set . lol

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opinionated2648d ago

They don't even have any leverage. You can't do this kind of shit as a no name studio lol.

Dev: "I will blackball you if you give a negative review"
Reviewer:"who are you again?"

You rarely hear about the big dogs because they shower these scumbags with gifts. No threats needed.

IamTylerDurden12648d ago

I think the dev was worried that since they are a small indie and since it's a no name game they might not be treated as fairly as say.. a AAA from Ubisoft or EA. Also, reviewers do need to take in account what the developer is attempting to achieve and what the targeted scale of the game is. This is a $12 indie, not Battlefield 1. However, the dev went about it the wrong way and should've been MUCH more eloquent about it.

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Kreisen2648d ago

What is unfair is to judge games differently based on their budget, developer, etc etc. Do you see movie critics go "well, this movie only cost about 10mil to produce so its fine for it to have poor writing and acting 10/10"? Should we all just praise bad videogames out of pity for the developer becouse supposedly they couldnt afford to make anything better?
I say wether you are a critic or just a regular consumer, whatever goes on behind the scenes really shouldnt concern you or impact how you feel about the product.

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Christopher2648d ago

@kreison

While unfair, that doesn't stop it from happening. Especially by gamers themselves who, especially on consoles, associate the designation of indie as being inferior. The only Indies that many ever okay are the stellar titles while the rest who score as well as most AAA games are seen as utter failures and a waste of time. So, reviews tend to mean a ton more to Indies than to AAA games when it comes to potential of sales. If an indie isn't highly praised, it's crap.

opinionated2648d ago (Edited 2648d ago )

I don't like reviews in general but I like colluded results even less. Whether it's by threat or by gifts. Developers should have no say whatsoever in those reviews. It stops being a review and turns into advertising. This is all too common to pile on this indie dev though. The chances are that if you are big enough to get an early review copy then you are on the take somehow. This dev should have sent them swag like everyone else instead of being an asshole lol.

DogJosha2647d ago

@Chris
If I am understanding correctly, you are saying indies need perfect scores to survive? Well that mentality has led to me no longer buying indies. I've played too many indies that are hailed as masterpieces, yet fall flat in aspects that isn't caused by a low budget. Since they are being given leeway based on budget, I can't trust buying any of them anymore. I mean, feel free to mention the budget limiting the game in your review, but don't raise the score higher than it deserves.

What doesn't help is that scores should be separated into sub sections, with well thought out paragraphs justifying each score. Less reliance should be put into websites like metacritic, where the score is ultimately meaningless, unless you are either trolling, or your reason for playing games is to be popular.

Neonridr2647d ago

a bad game is a bad game. We can't live in a world where we make excuses because they had a lower budget. Look at games like Shovel Knight, Hyper Light Drifter, etc. Indie games made with small teams and how awesome did they turn out?

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Big_Game_Hunters2647d ago

Nope, their game will sell more because of this. I'm sure many like me didn't even know this game existed before hearing about this. Free marketing.

opinionated2647d ago

If you go by the philosophy that "any press is good press" then you could be right. I don't think that's true. We have great games that are praised commercially and critically that flop and sell like crap. I don't think reviews are that influential anymore.

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DillyDilly2648d ago

They only think this because they were exposed they dont regret it

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ziggurcat2648d ago

what was the blackmail, exactly? if you review this game poorly, we won't send you any of our bad games in the future?

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Kaneki-Ken2648d ago

😁

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zuul90182648d ago

Everyone "regrets" their actions after they're caught.

Pathogenic2648d ago

It brings me to a valid point that I will make and stress to every gamer out there. You seen it first hand now what goes on behind the scenes. This should now tell you that pandora's box is now open and this will become much bigger than gamers would think. Not only did it talk about small indie developers but it also exposed how larger developers handle reviews.

I said it for years don't listen to other reviewers because it's based off a biased opinion. This biased opinion is not their own but of the developers opinion. They manipulated and went so far in an attempt to blackmail a reviewing company. This is huge because it tells me that heavy hitters like Activision, EA, Capcom, Square-Enix, Bungie can just simply say hey, in return for this code I want positive reviews oh and here is some extra's to go a long with it. If you don't give a high review score then we will drop you as a reviewer for the next big game.

With that said word of advice is from now on is form your own opinions by trailers, demos and waiting until the game releases and watch a few Youtube or Twitch videos by players don't have a lot of subs. I can guarantee you that these companies throw out merchandise to support popular gamers and it comes with a restriction. The restriction is to give it amazing reviews and we will promote you on our Twitter feed or ingame like BF1 currently does.

Just saying, get back to the basics and make your own informed decisions. This is a story that will become big.

admiralvic2648d ago

"It brings me to a valid point that I will make and stress to every gamer out there."

I don't know if I would call it valid.

"This biased opinion is not their own but of the developers opinion."

I've been writing for gaming news and review sites for over seven years and think I have some level of first hand experience with this sort of thing. While it might happen at higher tier sites, like I've never written for IGN, I still get free games and they don't tell me anything.

Like my e-mail for a recent decent profile game was more fear of outlets giving away the code or selling it, than getting my opinion of anything. Nowhere in that e-mail was I told to do anything besides "have an honest go at trying to review the game."

Most of the time I simply don't get the cool swag, which personally makes me sad because I find them fascinating as a person trying to work for a PR company, or even see the press e-mail for that matter. I just get the code and am sometimes told about the embargo. Even when I got things like Tearaway I was simply told not to reveal the ending and to have fun.

"This is huge because it tells me that heavy hitters like Activision, EA, Capcom, Square-Enix, Bungie can just simply say hey, in return for this code I want positive reviews oh and here is some extra's to go a long with it. "

The point being, I've gotten games over a month before release from companies like NISA or got high profile titles from Konami or Nintendo (you can see me playing with GameXplain on the Splatoon Pre-Release Review version) without any company EVER asking me to say anything about their product. Again, maybe I'm too small to get the sweet talk and freebies, but I'm still big enough for them to give me the product before release and for free.

"If you don't give a high review score then we will drop you as a reviewer for the next big game. "

I gave Destiny a low score, I still got review copies of The Dark Below through Rise of Iron, had no issue slapping Compile Heart and Bandai games with <6 scores, yet I've reviewed every Neptunia game and had Fate before release.

"watch a few Youtube or Twitch videos by players don't have a lot of subs."

Also, I hate to shatter your beliefs, but I don't think anyone would consider 4,000~ views a "lot of subs," yet I still get the song and dance from smaller companies. I did like 30 videos for Enter the Gungeon and got something like 600,000 views for them, which resulted in me getting several e-mails from smaller companies giving me free Steam codes, offering to give me giveaway codes and so forth. The funny thing is that I find the smaller companies, much like the post here, are the ones that tend to engage in this stuff, where as the larger ones just sort of go with it.

" I can guarantee you that these companies throw out merchandise to support popular gamers and it comes with a restriction. The restriction is to give it amazing reviews and we will promote you on our Twitter feed or ingame like BF1 currently does."

Anyway, I doubt you'll take what I said as true, but this has been my experience as someone doing this for seven years. I don't see all the horror, restrictions and awful things that may exist, but certainly aren't as common/universal as some make it out to be.

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Pathogenic2647d ago (Edited 2647d ago )

You are absolutely right in the fact of your own opinion but I can't say you personally are telling the truth. You could've made all this up in a nut shell. It's the internet anyone can. Also you can't relate your own experience as journalist to an indie company or even higher tier company. You don't work there so you would have no idea correct? I don't expect anyone to take my opinion to heart. Like I said make a more informed decision yourself.

Now you can doubt anyway you want and can criticize other people's opinions all you want and break it down however you feel but in the end what does that tell you about your personal attitude as a journalist? I present what's in front of me in black and white. With that said you can keep responding all you want and have people agree with you based on the words you typed. I'm not looking for agrees or disagrees. It doesn't bother me. Have a good night

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G0zo2647d ago (Edited 2647d ago )

I also have been writing for gaming news and review sites for four years. And what admiralvic is saying is true. I think, that only biased person here is you, Pathogenic.

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PolishWingedHussar2648d ago

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Donnie812648d ago

Its a 12 $ game who cares, i spend way more than that on lunch every day. But its not the best or worst game I've ever played. Worth the price

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alfcrippinjr2648d ago

people have to remember that its not a AAA houses like EA or ubi-soft
but the bad thing is asking reviewers not to give it any negative feedback aka lie

preview of Dead Effect 2 is very negative, you won't receive any keys from us in the future.

just think how many fakes reviews are out there because if they give a negative review
no more games reviews from them.

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Angerfist2648d ago

Their Point is valid though - you cant compared this title to Games that are 5 times the price.

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SweetLeafSmoker2648d ago

What do you expect from a clear as day, blatant wannabe copycat of the Mass Effect series...

Dead Effect... hahaha everything about this game and the newest one is just a dirty, underdevopled Mass Effect clone..

It's like Shareware games all over again. hahahaa

theXtReMe12647d ago (Edited 2647d ago )

I understand where BadFly is coming from. More often than not, these Indie studios are held up to AAA standards. When every game you make, may mean your company and employees livelihood, every review matters. The game is actually very well done. I would say that the visuals are on par with most modern shooters and the gameplay reminds me of Doom and Killing Floor, wit some RPG elements thrown in. Fun, arcade style, mindless shooting of very cool looking enemies. Truthfully, beyond the voice acting... the game is really good. It is only $12. I would have no problem paying $30 for it.

All that said, I think they went about it the wrong way... as with any email or message, the mainstream internet is only a click away. They had to know that this was not going to stay under wraps. Im not even sure EA or Ubisoft would have the balls to send something like that, as I think any site would post the negative press towards them... over getting first dibs at future releases for review. Controversy creates a hell of a lot more clicks than reviews do.

Lenrulesdaworld2647d ago

I don't my team has ever been blackmailed or showered with gifts for any review, We're extremely happy to get games to review and to voice our honest opinions with now recourse. It's unfortunate the dev took this approach and unfortunate the site had to expose them. But this doesn't happen often from the big pubs, they do two things. 1. Request numbers to see if your install is large enough to even be worth given a copy 2. Or put you down to get one. I think if anyone is threaten's it's definitely the smaller Dev because one bad game can break their whole business.

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kenwonobi2647d ago

Which brings us to a subject I think is important. Not all reviews can be trusted. I mean yes they thwarted this one company. How many other reviewers have fallen prey to the big companies though? This just highlighted the idea that reviews are in fact bought or expected to be a certain way. Which is why I researched games. They can be influenced to negatively review and positively review all games. So I believe in not listening with just their opinion but instead my own.

ThanatosDMC2647d ago

Watching the gameplay a while ago and animation was awful. I'm surprised it costs $12 on PSN when it looks like an early access game from Steam.

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chris2352647d ago

wasnt this a mobile/tablet game?

Rangerman12082647d ago (Edited 2647d ago )

That what they get for porting a Mobile game to consoles with no improvements or new additions. Why can't mobile devs take notes from Republique PS4 or Plague Inc Evolved?

quent2647d ago

When is Mass Space coming out ?

mochachino2647d ago

For a team of 11 people the graphics look good. Certainly a lot better than a number of other indie titles.

Shouldn't have threatened reviewers though.

windblowsagain2647d ago

The game is £2.49 on steam, rofl.

shauzy2647d ago

damn, this console has anti aliasing go by division, not multiplication

Gwiz2647d ago

Are you threatening me?lol

thelaughingwiseman2647d ago

Aren't reviewers known for doing sleezy things as well? Like extorting money and other goodies so that they give positive reviews. Giving a game negative reviews because an employee of the development team was a sexist, and that reviewer didn't like sexist, so they pan the game.

loverlink2647d ago

In Eastern Europe a threat is just another form of compliment LOL.

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Mrveryodd2647d ago

He is s bit silly writing this and to not realise that it would be plastered all over the internet.
But I also feel for a small developer as I bet this happens a lot in the industry.