History MisBlamed / VideoGames

** The [[ScrewedByTheLawyers licensing issues]] for GoldenEye are...complicated. Activision may hold the James Bond license now, but Nintendo held it when the game was originally released (obviously), so the question of who holds the IP to this particular game is messy. Rare owns the game's code, but because they're now owned by Microsoft, they're not going to hand it over to Nintendo to be released on Virtual Console. These questions ownership ''could'' theoretically be cleared up if the matter was ever taken to court, but that would be so expensive that none of the parties involved would think that it's worth it.

*** Coming back to Rare now being owned by Microsoft, it should also be pointed out that Rare's N64 games ''are'' available on Xbox Live Arcade instead.
**** Except for Conker, which still leaves the fans of the game pissed off at Microsoft for not releasing it on Xbox Live Arcade and cancelling the sequel.

* The Circle of Eight mod garnered complaints from fans for including a [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Buster Sword]]. The sword model was in the core game, used by a bugged sword that [[DummiedOut can only be accessed by console]].

* ''TombRaider'' fans often blame Creator/CoreDesign for the fact that the sixth installment (and the last installment of the [[ContinuityReboot original continuity]]), ''The Angel of Darkness'', was released in a clearly unfinished state. As it turned out, [[ExecutiveMeddling publisher Eidos]] [[http://kteb.net/wp/core-design/ pestered Core Design]] [[http://kteb.net/wp/core-design/behind-the-scenes/ to rush the game in spite of the fact that Core were unhappy with it]], and if they didn't get it out on time, they would be fired. They released the game, it failed, and Eidos fired Core anyway.

* The Circle of Eight mod for ''TempleOfElementalEvil'' is panned for including a [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Buster Sword]]. The sword model was in the core game, used by a bugged sword that [[DummiedOut can only be accessed by console]].

** EA in general catches a lot of flack for "ruining" companies they buy up, but in many cases, prior to the purchase said companies weren't all that profitable, and in some cases they couldn't do what they did without EA's money. FullMotionVideo ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' and ''UltimaOnline'' were feasible only with financial support from EA, as Origin prior to being bought by EA[[hottip:* :around the time of the release of [=WC2=]: Secret Operations 1; EA involvement with Origin is, in other words, [[OlderThanTheyThink older than the fandom thinks]]]] was, at best, "holding on", financially, in spite of the critical acclaim of their games.

** ''Left4Dead'' and its sequel caused a ton of backlash among its fans. When ''Left 4 Dead 2'' was made and released, people whined that Valve "broke its promise" of supporting ''Left 4 Dead 1'' and how almost everything the sequel had should have been in the first game. What people fail to realize is that ''Left 4 Dead 1'' is simply not balanced for ''[=L4D2's=]'' features (Most of the maps in the first game are narrow and small, which would make it heaven for Spitters and Chargers. Weapons like the Grenade Launcher and Chainsaw are also not suited for the close quarters style ''[=L4D1=]'' had). Along with that, to add another batch of 25+ maps and new characters with dialogue would start to get close to download sizes matching a full game. Many people also assume that since ''[=L4D2=]'' is out and Valve is making a DLC campaign that has the old survivors meet the new ones in the sequel, ''[=L4D1=]'' is now dead. Keep in mind that ''[=L4D1=]'' is only a year old and Valve has a history of still updating their older games when the sequels for them have come out.
*** And to further prove this point, The Sacrifice DLC came out for [=L4D1=] as well as the sequel in order to please both fan bases. Of course, this still backfired since the sequel also got a port of No Mercy, a campaign from the first game and people are now crying that Valve is trying to kill off [=L4D1=], even though they have been updating the game with patches and other features.

* When ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' finally got an official English release, many people complained about various edits and changes made to the game script. Actually, many of the differences were a result of an earlier FanTranslation by [=DeJap=] of the SNES version being ''less'' faithful to the original than the official GBA version. Of course, there still that thing about "Ragnarok" becoming "Kangaroo" (as well as generally being a pretty bland localization), but despite what anyone says that's pretty much the ''only'' outright mistake.

* While {{Konami}} has displayed their fair share of incompetence in handling {{Bemani}} games outside of East Asia, they also tend to get blamed for things that weren't actually their fault -- many of the screwups with ''DanceDanceRevolution'' series from ''DDR [=SuperNOVA=]'' onwards in the US are the fault of Betson, which Konami contracted to handle distribution of the series stateside. Others were because they were ScrewedByTheLawyers of the music industry. Then there was the disastrous attempt at a nationwide official DDR tournament in 2009, where they made the mistake of partnering with [=GameWorks=], which then proceeded to screw up the tournament in every way imaginable and then some.

*** Speaking of BioWare, EA was one of the major suspects to blame for ''MassEffect3'' ending that almost unanimously considered as terrible in the fandom. This despite the fact that EA had little to do with the creative process and it was mostly BioWare's work to begin with. At worst EA may have indirectly been responsible for the ''implementation'' of the ending (in particular how rushed and perfunctory it seemed prior to the Extended Cut DLC), but the fact that [[spoiler:Shepard dies in nearly every ending variation]] was entirely the choice of the lead developers.

** Also, a lot of ''Franchise/MetalGear'' fans who never actually play the NES version of the game accuse it of having a silly plot in comparison to the "serious" storyline in the original [=MSX2=] version, replacing the original BigBad of Big Boss, an American soldier turned renegade mercenary, with Vermon [=CaTaffy=], a pastiche of real-life terrorist Muammar al-Gaddafi. In truth, Konami's American manuals back in the day tended to feature weird plot changes (as evident by the American manuals for the early ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'', ''{{Contra}}'', and ''{{Gradius}}'' games) that thankfully did not affect the games themselves. The NES version of ''Metal Gear'', despite its BlindIdiotTranslation quality, is almost identical to the [=MSX2=] version in terms of plot aside for a few minor differences and Big Boss is still the BigBad in the NES version. The non-canon ''Snake's Revenge'' also featured a similar discrepancy between the game and its manual, with the manual identifying the bad guy as Higharolla Kockamamie (another pastiche, this time of Ayatollah Khomeini), but the actual villain of the game is revealed to be a cyborg Big Boss.

** And when it's not Xbox Live that gets all the criticism for this, it's always something like ''VideoGame/{{Counter-Strike}}'' or ''{{Quake}}''.

** Also related, anyone who thinks that the PvP in ''LeagueOfLegends'' having the screaming of XboxLive, ''VideoGame/{{Counter-Strike}}'', or ''{{Quake}}'' type StopHavingFunGuys combined and cranked UpToEleven have never played the original ''[=DotA=]'', or have engaged in any competitive activity.

* Hideaki Itsuno, who is credited as director in all the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' sequels', is often seen as the quintessential example of a game designer redeeming himself due to how he seemingly recovered from the failure of ''[=DMC2=]'' by working on its two {{surprisingly improved sequel}}s. In reality, Itsuno had little involvement with ''[=DMC2=]'', as he was assigned to the project late during development to salvage what he could after the previous director was fired by Capcom.
** The much reviled redesign of Dante in ''VideoGame/DMCDevilMayCry'' has caused a lot fan outrage. Nearly all of it was directed at Ninja Theory (who Capcom handed the series for said reboot's production), but Ninja Theory is only partly responsible, as the redesign was done at Capcom's request and approval. Sadly, lead designer Tameem Antoniades' [[http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3181535 response]] [[http://bitmob.com/articles/should-developers-listen-to-their-fans to the fans]] has done little to diffuse this situation.

* Hideaki Itsuno, who is credited as director in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 2'', ''3'' and ''4'', is often seen as the quintessential example of a game designer redeeming himself. In reality, Itsuno had little involvement with ''[=DMC2=]'', as he was brought in to salvage the project after Capcom fired the previous director due to how much of a disaster the original version was turning out to be.
** The much reviled redesign of Dante in ''DMCDevilMayCry'' has caused a lot fan outrage. Nearly all of it was directed at Ninja Theory (who Capcom handed the series for said reboot's production), but Ninja Theory is only partly responsible, as the redesign was done at Capcom's request and approval. Sadly, lead designer Tameem Antoniades' [[http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3181535 response]] [[http://bitmob.com/articles/should-developers-listen-to-their-fans to the fans]] has done little to diffuse this situation.

** The much reviled redesign of Dante in ''DmCDevilMayCry'' has caused a lot fan outrage. Nearly all of it was directed at Ninja Theory (who Capcom handed the series for said reboot's production), but Ninja Theory is only partly responsible, as the redesign was done at Capcom's request and approval. Sadly, lead designer Tameem Antoniades' [[http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3181535 response]] [[http://bitmob.com/articles/should-developers-listen-to-their-fans to the fans]] has done little to diffuse this situation.

* The much reviled redesign of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry''[==]'s Dante in the recently announced reboot has caused a lot fan outrage. Nearly all of it is directed at Ninja Theory (who Capcom handed the series for said reboot's production), but Ninja Theory is only partly responsible, as the redesign was done at Capcom's request and approval. Sadly, lead designer Tameem Antoniades' [[http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3181535 response]] [[http://bitmob.com/articles/should-developers-listen-to-their-fans to the fans]] has done little to diffuse this situation.

** More specifically, Capcom USA has been the subject of a lot of heat for their English translations of the company's Japanese-developed games, which typically mangle not only the dialogue but also the plot canon for some games, ''StreetFighter'' in particular. A [[http://www.capcom-unity.com/ask_capcom/go/thread/view/7371/20130381/Seth_Skill_your_wisdom_is_needed_in_order_to_-%20resolve_a_concern_about_Capcom_USA&post_num=2#346948685 recent revelation]] from Capcom USA's Senior Vice President, however, reveals that it is ''Capcom of Japan'' that is responsible for the botched English translations that made their way overseas for years. Which begs the question of [[FridgeLogic why a Japanese company would mix-up the translation of dialogue and plot written in their native language just for outsiders]].
*** One has to consider that some of the ''Street Fighter'' games from the mid-to-late 1990's had American staff members working on them, so they had more input. However, most of the quotes and endings in the games, while a bit embellished sometimes (Guile never mentions Cambodia in the Japanese version), had mostly accurate translations. Endings that were truly different, like Cammy's and Fei Long's, were often the exceptions rather than the rule.

** Also, a lot of ''Franchise/MetalGear'' fans who never actually play the NES version of the game accuse it of having a silly plot in comparison to the "serious" storyline in the original MSX version, replacing the original BigBad of Big Boss, an American soldier turned renegade mercenary, with Vermon [=CaTaffy=], a pastiche of real-life terrorist Muammar al-Gaddafi. In truth, Konami's American manuals back in the day tended to feature weird plot changes (as evident by the American manuals for the early ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'', ''{{Contra}}'', and ''{{Gradius}}'' games) that thankfully did not affect the games themselves. The NES version of ''Metal Gear'', despite its BlindIdiotTranslation quality, is almost identical to the MSX version in terms of plot aside for a few minor differences and Big Boss is still the BigBad in the NES version. The non-canon ''Snake's Revenge'' also featured a similar discrepancy between the game and its manual, with the manual identifying the bad guy as Higharolla Kockamamie (another pastiche, this time of Ayatollah Khomeini), but the actual villain of the game is revealed to be a Cyborg Big Boss.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid: The Twin Snakes'' often gets a lot of scorn for its cutscenes, most of the blame is directed towards Ryuhei Kitimura, who directed the scenes. However, ''every scene that Kitimura included was approved by HideoKojima'', and Kitimura was chosen specifically for his over-the-top nature.

* Many people who played the fan-translated version of ''VideoGame/MetalGear2'' assumed that the name of the enemy boss "Black Color", a misromanization of "Blackcollar", was a mistake by the fan-translators. In reality, that's how it was spelled in the actual Japanese version (all of the bosses' names in the game were written in roman script).

* And speaking of Square, regardless of your opinions on their output, a lot of people seem to believe that ''artist'' Tetsuya Nomura not only does 100% character designs, but literally does everything at Square Enix. He is often blamed for character designs on titles he's not involved in, accused of programming decisions, and sometimes even ''marketing''. For the record, he doesn't actually do much for ''FinalFantasy'' outside of designs and debugging, and actually didn't serve as a character designer for ''IX'', ''XI'', or ''XII''. (All of which we're told "were all Nomura's".) He also only directs the ''KingdomHearts'' series, got a side project out of ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'', and his ''first'' effort as a director for the ''FinalFantasy'' series is ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVersusXIII'', which is ironically being lauded by many of his detractors as a creative, fresh new direction for the series, unlike that other "Nomura anime crap".

** Not to mention, a lot of people hate on Nintendo for ''Mother 3'' not having an international release. The results of the second game probably left a bad taste in peoples' mouths, as it was met with poor sales reception initially and didn't gain ImmunityToCriticism until about 5-6 years after its release. That wasn't going to help the case. On top of the other issues such as the AC-DC riffraffs and mentions of other shows creating a legal mess, there was also the issue that it was released in ''2006''. By that point in time, the DS had already been established on the market and stores were phasing out new GameBoyAdvance games to make more space for the DS's growing roster. (Which was also a rumour for the first game, which also would have been released for the NES at a time when the SNES was out and most people would have shelved it.) In all, it was SavedFromDevelopmentHell a tad too late.

** There was still some sexual humor in the original Japanese (like Arche's infamous sex dream about Cless and Arche admiring Mint's figure in the hot springs,) but [=DeJap=] was far less subtle about presenting it, as well as [[{{Flanderization}} ramping up Arche's pervertedness.]]

* Overkill Software is heavily blamed for removing some musical pieces in the game ''PAYDAYTheHeist'' and how they should have just paid the music composer of those tracks when it came to the release of the game's soundtrack. In actuality, the 2nd music composer in question is most likely already compensated for his work and the game's main music composer himself had to step in and say that in order for him to release the soundtrack, they had to have all the music be under his name in order to simplify the legal stuff surrounding the soundtrack release since the 2nd composer is not affiliated with Overkill anymore. People still demand for the old tracks to return.

** This is also the reason why ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' isn't on the Virtual Console. [[VideoGame/GoldenEyeWii Not that it's necessary.]]

* Again, one of the many complaints lodged against ''Snake's Revenge: Metal Gear II'' is that the translation tells you the opposite of what you have to do during the train level ("THERE IS NO TRAP ON THE TRAIN" has become a semi-meme). Of course, the sequence was a deliberate callback to ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' since it happens immediately before the person giving you the hints turns out to be [[TreacherousAdvisor a spy trying to make you fail]], who you then fight in a boss battle.

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' is widely known as Notch's creation. He did a lot of things to the game, but hasn't gotten involved with the game at all after the game went gold in 2011. Despite Jeb taking charge of the game and NOtch stepping down, many people still think Notch runs the game and blame him if there's a change they don't like.

* Team Ninja is solely blamed for how Samus' personality is and how the game is totally different from the rest of the games in the Metroid games in ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM''. Team Ninja just did the programming and combat system design. It was the co-creator of Metroid, Yoshio Sakamoto, who wanted to apply all the changes and wrote personally the scenario.

* During the 1980s and 1990s, Nintendo of America was heavily known for forcing censorship in many games published their name, which had dubbed Nintendo as a company that only makes "kiddy" games. One of the most common things that got censored was religion, but this was due to potential backlash from parents who would have thought that Nintendo was forcing religion down their kids' throats and religious groups that would have found the content in the games offensive. The religious concerns popped up in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' where the Fire Temple had Muslim chanting in the background music while the symbols around Gerudo Fortress and on Link's Mirror Shield were also related. People complained about it, which forced Nintendo to remove the chanting and replace the symbols in later versions of the game. The true blame behind some of Nintendo's censorship were the people outside of Nintendo.