History MisBlamed / VideoGames

* Reggie Fils-Aime, former president of Nintendo of America, was blamed for things such as not improving the Wii's infrastructure, for withholding potentially good games for the Wii, and is also blamed for not releasing ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' on the Virtual Console, or ''VideoGame/Mother3'' at all outside of Japan. Reggie had no significant control over any of that, with such things being the decision of Nintendo's Japanese headquarters. As for [=EarthBound's=] case, the reason it took until 2013 to be re-released outside Japan is because Nintendo simply believed there was no interest for the game.

** It's widely and mistakenly thought that Nintendo of America refused to release ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'' stateside solely due to the belief that Western players couldn't "handle" its high difficulty. While the brutal difficulty did play a role (with [=NoA=] president Howard Shore personally citing it as such), the ''other'' reason for the change was because it was deemed to be little more than a MissionPackSequel that would have looked outdated compared to other NES games at the time.

** When talking about ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'', many sources will credit Yoichi Kotabe, a veteran Creator/{{Toei|Animation}} animator who worked for Nintendo from 1985 to 2007, as the artist behind the game's distinctive cartoonish visuals. It seems like a reasonable assumption to make, as ''Wind Waker'' bears a lot of aesthetic similarities to classic Toei animated films like ''Anime/TheLittlePrinceAndTheEightHeadedDragon'', and was released in 2003 so the timeline adds up. However, Kotabe had no personal involvement in ''Wind Waker''[='s=] development -- he has stated as such in multiple interviews, and his name doesn't appear anywhere in the credits, which list Yoshiki Haruhana, Satoru Takizawa, and Masanao Arimoto as the design managers instead. Javed Sterritt of ''The Hyrule Journals'' has [[https://youtu.be/mFAlqXavXRs a video]] going into further detail about this misconception and how it came to be.

** Ken Pontiac and Warren Gruff tend to receive the blunt of criticism for the divisive shift in tone to a DenserAndWackier tone and shift in characterization in the games starting with ''VideoGame/SonicColors'', even though they mostly only localize the stories written back over at Creator/SonicTeam and have no real influence on how the characters are written. Even the game they did write, ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'', was written using an base outline given to them from Sega.

* The many issues from the mere existence of ''VideoGame/Persona5: The Phantom X''[[note]]{{Microtransactions}}, CastOfExpies, FollowTheLeader, NewWorkRecycledGraphics, ItsTheSameSoItSucks ''and'' TheyChangedItNowItSucks, among harsher criticisms, especially related to the target demographic.[[/note]] cause the ''Persona'' fandom to paint Atlus and/or Sega as a lost cause and completely greedy, tainting expectations for the next ''Persona'' entries. The fandom even accuses this game for taking away ''Persona'' team's development time for the next mainline games. However, Atlus only officially licensed ''The Phantom X'' and oversaw the creative aspects. The game itself was developed by Black Wings Game Studio, part of Perfect World, not P-Studio. Not to mention, mainland China [[NoExportForYou never officially got]] ''Persona 5'' at all, hence the similar story flow with CastOfExpies albeit in gacha format. ''The Phantom X'' is primarily developed for the Chinese audience, though WordOfGod admitted to [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff be surprised by the hype from outside China]], which fueled this further.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'': After the game was released with a number of technical issues, many fans and critics blamed the hardware, with the Switch being simply too weak to run the game. However, the Switch is host to several WideOpenSandbox games that are greater in scale and complexity, yet lack such problems, such as ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' (which was a launch title). The graphical issues were the result of poor optimization, theorized to be due to the game being ChristmasRushed.
** Due to Hitoshi Ariga being a Pokémon designer who's previous worked on the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' franchise, he's considered to be the creator of Armarouge and Ceruledge, whose designs reminded people of ''Mega Man'' characters. However, the only Gen IX Pokémon he's confirmed that he created are the Nacli line, Espathra, and Flutter Mane.

* Creator/ElectronicArts receives a lot of flak for their exclusive license to make games with National Football League players and teams, with many gamers believing that EA simply threw a lot of money at the NFL to get the license. In fact, [[http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/14/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/ the NFL took bids from a number of video game companies]] before ''awarding'' the contract to EA. Gamers, however, deny this, believing that the league would never willingly enter such anti-competitive agreements -- never mind that the NFL's own actions in regards to [[http://consumerist.com/5185430/nfl-sunday-ticket-will-remain-directv-exclusive-until-2014 television distribution]] and [[http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/09/18/american-needle-throws-downfield-in-nfl-licensing-dispute/ apparel licensing]] indicates that they not only willingly agree to, but also ''encourage'' these kinds of licensing deals.
** EA still may not be totally blameless in this area, as their similarly exclusive deals with the NCAA and Arena Football League seem to indicate they have no problem pursuing exclusive rights (these and the NFL deal are all part of a California-based class action suit against the company). Of course, it may be possible that the AFL and NCAA simply follow the same hardball tactics as the NFL.
** And let's not even get started on the fans of Creator/BioWare games who are convinced that any "dumbing down" of [[RolePlayingGame RPG]] mechanics or DLC offers are all the nefarious influence of EA having bought them, and might not just be [=BioWare=] themselves trying to streamline their games and give the players more content that might not have been available otherwise.
*** Speaking of [=BioWare=], EA was one of the major suspects to blame for ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'''s infamous ending that is almost unanimously considered to be 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.
*** Microing down even further, a self-proclaimed writer for the game came out and said that most of the writing staff were cut out of the development of the final part of the story [[spoiler: where Shepard meets the Catalyst]], with lead writer Mac Walters and executive producer Casey Hudson writing it exclusively themselves without any input from the rest of the writing staff. Whether this is true or not is up to contention, but it certainly caused a stir in an already hot topic discussion.
** 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 ''VideoGame/UltimaOnline'' were feasible only with financial support from EA, as Origin prior to being bought by EA[[note]]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]][[/note]] was, at best, "holding on", financially, in spite of the critical acclaim of their games.
*** Also funny, take a look at the publisher for ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2''. Notice anything? Yep. EA. Guess whose idea it was to make it a sequel to ''System Shock''? EA. AccentuateTheNegative at its finest.
** They are often criticized for releasing essentially the same ''VideoGame/MaddenNFL'' game with updated rosters year after year. While this is arguably true, ''football itself'' doesn't really change from year to year.
** At a Q&A session at Dragon Con 2014, Richard Garriott went on record saying that blame for the quality of ''VideoGame/UltimaVIII'' should be spread around between himself and EA, stating that if he could go back and 'fix' just one game, that would be it. EA had been around no longer than Origin, but was far more (financially) successful, so Garriott assumed they knew what they were doing and didn't object when they insisted he cut his game to the bone (to the point where the cloth map no longer made sense) in order to make its release date. The problem was that EA had been making money by constantly updating the ''Madden'' engine (among others) and consistently releasing the latest version in time for football season, so they were anal about scheduling. This was...less than good for a complex action RPG. Of course, ''VideoGame/UltimaIX'' was the result of ExecutiveMeddling pulling much of the staff to work on ''VideoGame/UltimaOnline'' (which was dismissed as a dead concept before the paid beta). The cancelled sequel to ''Ultima Online'' was also against Garriott's wishes, who said it would be cancelled within a year and wanted to make ''VideoGame/WingCommander Online'' instead.
** Whenever the ''VideoGame/NBA2K'' series gets bad publicity, many jump to blame EA - even though it's Creator/TakeTwoInteractive that makes the game. EA ''does'' have a competing series in the form of ''NBA Live'', which largely goes ignored.
** ''VideoGame/{{Anthem}}'': EA got the bulk of the blame for the maligned game, with many people accusing the publisher of forcing Creator/{{BioWare}} into creating a ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' copycat. Granted, EA did cause some problems during the TroubledProduction like mandating Bioware to use the Frostbite engine, which was designed for [[FirstPersonShooter FPS]] games and not suited for [=RPGs=], and EA offered little support as they were more interested at the time in creating the FIFA games. However, the majority of ''Anthem'''s production problems came from [=BioWare=] itself. Not only did EA actually give them 6 years to make the game, later extended to 7, but EA also interfered very little with the creative process of the production. The studio itself had little idea of what they wanted to do and was constantly scrapping ideas and going back to the drawing board, stuck 5 years in pre-production, during a time of intense stress during which many people took sabbaticals for their health or just plain quit because they couldn't take it, and all the ideas of the game came from [=BioWare=] itself. Ironically, EA's real error was being ''too lenient'' towards [=BioWare=] as their ExecutiveMeddling was the reason for the game having its few saving graces, most notably the flying mechanic.

* ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'': There was a long-standing urban legend that the ''Trials'' English localization was scrapped in favor of creating ''VideoGame/SecretOfEvermore'' for North American audiences, which resulted in the latter becoming a source of disdain. ''Secret of Evermore'' had nothing to do with that decision, being created by an American team of developers hired specifically for that game. The actual reason for ''Trials'' not being localized was simply because of hardware limitations; there wasn't enough room left on the cartridge for English text.

** On the topic of ''Grand Theft Auto'', many fans initially blame the character striping glitch in [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Grand Theft Auto Online]] on Rockstar themselves. ''It was actually caused by bugs in [=NVidia's=] drivers'', and a driver update fixed the issue (unfortunately, certain hardware configurations and cards older than the [=GTX400=] series ''cannot'' use the update...).

* Creator/{{SNK}} and other associated companies aren't exempt from this, either. As one of the chara designes for ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'', Nona often flak for the most recent entries in the series, due to their new art designs. While he ''was'' the art director for XII (and draws for the pre-fight exchanges in XIII), it's actually Ogura Eisuke, the artist for ''VideoGame/NeoGeoBattleColiseum'', who handled the artwork. For some odd reason, Nona is also being blamed '''for the story developments''', an area that he has minimal influence in at best.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'': After the game was released with a number of technical issues, many fans and critics blamed the hardware, with the Switch being simply too weak to run the game. However, the Switch is host to several OpenWorldSandbox games that are greater in scale and complexity, yet lack such problems, such as ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' (which was a launch title). The graphical issues were the result of poor optimization, theorized to be due to the game being ChristmasRushed.

* Controversial topics like DRM, DLC and microtransactions generally have the blame placed on the developers. Said developers are usually not in charge of such things since they're focused on making the game while the publishers or other corporate bigwigs are the ones that call the shots for microtransactions and the like.

** ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' came under fire for having DRM on the PC version and angry fans blamed the developers for it. The developers fired back by saying they were never told about it and were angry that Creator/{{Sega}} would do such a thing.
** As hated as Denuvo is, there are cases where every performance drop is blamed on it when the root problem lies elsewhere, yet players and even tech experts blame it anyway. This is not helped by the fact that it requires a lot of effort of interpreting the code and a deeper understanding of where Denuvo checks are placed, so that issues can be distinguished between Denuvo implementation itself and plain poor optimization on the original code by the developers. Games that haphazardly applied the Denuvo checks are the ones that do suffer from the lowered performance, an example being ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage''.
* Translations of Japanese games were frequently assumed to have just been a case of publishers thinking that ViewersAreMorons. This isn't fully true -- while translation has come a far way since TheEighties and TheNineties, translation is not a simple case of replaciing the original script with the translated script. People needed the right fonts and had to deal with limitations of game space. Some people found this out while attempting a FanTranslation, but misconceptions spread like wildfire. Changing dialogue from Japanese to English and vice versa simply was ''not'' as easy as people assumed.
** This is also one of the reasons why it's very unlikely that we will see some games that [[NoExportForYou never left their home country]] - for example, ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIf'' is on the Switch Online in Japan, but not anywhere else. Not only would Atlus have to deal with licensing in different countries, but the amount of work would be notably more than what they would likely receive from any licensing deals from Nintendo.
* The lack of many games as being available on modern platforms. It's frequently blamed on other companies, when the real reason may be difficulties in programming. Many games were held together with different code and it was ''not'' future-proofed. And of course, some games were published or developed by studios that are now bankrupt. It's not always the fault of Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, or anyone else that they're not available - code written in TheNineties isn't always compatible.
* Indie games that get criticized over imperfect optimization. What some people don't realize is that optimization can be very expensive, and indie games usually do not have the budget to be able to optimize their games to the same degree that a large company could do, especially without sacrificing more important things.

* The decline of Creator/{{Rare}} starting with their sale to Microsoft has resulted in many blaming the company's founders, the Stamper Brothers, for being motivated by pure greed in selling the company when everyone thought they had a good thing going with Nintendo in the SNES and Nintendo 64 era. In reality however, things hadn't been going well behind the scenes between Rare and Nintendo for quite some time; Rare's employees had become thoroughly sick and tired of Nintendo's ExecutiveMeddling, to the point where many of them had already walked out to form Free Radical Design, and nearly all of the remaining staff also threatened to quit (which would have all but killed Rare as a viable developer) unless the Stampers decoupled the company from Nintendo. They didn't have the money to buy out Nintendo's shares, so selling up to Microsoft -- Activision were also sounded out as potential buyers, but negotiations broke down early on -- was the only viable way to keep the company going.
** Many ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'' fans pointed fingers at Microsoft for making the Xbox 360 installment ''Nuts & Bolts'' vehicular-based instead of doing a traditional platformer. Actually, Rare made the decision on their own.

** Since the dawn of DLC, developers/publishers have had to contend with accusations of deliberately [[DummiedOut cutting content]] from the base game with the intent of selling it later as a cheap cash-grab. These accusations aren't unwarranted at times; as two examples, ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken'' was discovered by dataminers to have the data for its numerous DLC already be on the disc, while ''VideoGame/TheSims4'' has a lackluster base game compared to previous entries in ''VideoGame/TheSims'' and has an absurd amount of DLC, a noticeable number of which contains features found in the base game for previous entries. However, the belief that ''all'' DLC is shadily withheld for extra money, or that games made before the advent of DLC were always released complete with no cut content, is false. Developers have cut content from their games long before the advent of DLC, usually for time constraint or [[ScrewedByTheLawyers copyright conflict]] reasons, and the technology at the time prevented them from issuing even bugfixes, let alone new/missing content. As one example, ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' was planned to have an entire optional dungeon in the Forest Ruins accessible after upgrading Marle's Pendant in Zeal Kingdom, but that idea had to be scrapped for time constraint reasons and replaced with a choice between the Swallow weapon and Guardian Helm. In addition, modern games like ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', and ''VideoGame/CrossCode'' prove that there are still devs out there who can add extra content on top of already-good games. Odds are, DLC released shortly after the base game's launch are cut and sold as cheap cash-grabs, while DLC released several months or more later are true additional content.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'': After the game was released with bugs and issues with the visuals, many fans and critics blamed the hardware, with the Switch being simply too weak to run the game. Other fans and critics, however, pointed out that the Switch was perfectly able to run even bigger and more complex games, like ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'', and even infamously beefy games like ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}} [[UpdatedRerelease Remastered]] [[CompilationRerelease Trilogy]]'', and ''VideoGame/Persona5 [[UpdatedRerelease Royal]]''. The blame would actually lie on the developers going through crunch to attend an unrealistic release date -- which is in turn the fault of business mandates setting a strict release schedule, not the developers being inexperienced or setting out to make an underwhelming product. If anything, it's been agreed that Game Freak's ambition has only grown since the Switch generation, with ''Scarlet and Violet'' being their most ambitious project yet, but the timeline for releases is yet to be adjusted.

* Creator/SquareEnix has been blamed for several things disliked about the remake of ''VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals'', despite the fact that Neverland, the developer of the series (with the exception of ''The Ruins of Lore''), was the one working on it -- Square Enix only published it in Japan (with Natsume, the same company that localized the original version, handling localization) and funded it. Also, Square Enix gets yelled at for publishing ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2'' in Japan, with people saying it would be tainted with [[{{Bishonen}} girly men]]. Game publishing doesn't work that way.
* Many people are angered by the fact that Bahamut was portrayed as a dragon in games like ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. And yet for some reason, the blame seems to fall ''solely'' on ''Final Fantasy'' for making people think this. A lot of things in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' were based off things in ''Dungeons and Dragons'', at least at the start, and Bahamut was one of those things. Digging deeper, in the 1st edition of advanced Dungeons and Dragons Bahamut was introduced as a dragon [[ShownTheirWork loosely based off of Arabic mythology]], and was never meant to be [[SpellMyNameWithAThe THE]] Behamut. (Surprisingly some of the same people will credit this as starting the Beholder trend, showing that they at least ''looked'' inside the manual) Another interesting thing is that despite how commonly Bahamut appears in the FF games, his role is rather limited. There have never really been any stories centered around the character, and he's mostly been a summon. ''Dungeons and Dragons'' is more to blame for popularizing dragon!Bahamut, using him as a character in several campaigns.
** It's also important to note that within Japanese mythology, the distinctions between "dragon" and "huge ancient mythological entity associated with the sea, storms, and earthquakes" are very hazy. Japan's own [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namazu_(Japanese_mythology) Namazu]] is frequently given a draconic makeover in art, for instance, becoming an elongated catfish/dragon hybrid (when not being anthropomorphised into a [[FishPeople Reverse Mermaid]]). Had they not run with the D&D dragon derivative of Bahamut, Bahamut may still have been shown as very dragon-like by the game's designers...and this would not be considered as making him not ''also'' a giant sea creature.
* The German version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' (which was the UpdatedRerelease to boot) was translated from the original Japanese version, omitting most of the changes the English version made. Unfortunately, they threw in the English voice overs instead of the Japanese ones. This triggered one of the most infamous {{Flame War}}s over how they could subtitle Yuna's "I love you" with "Thank you", when the latter was actually what she said in the Japanese version.
** Said incident was enough to convince Square Enix to, in the future, translate any and all story parts, even if they're not voiced, from the English version.
* Many fans believe that ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyMysticQuest'' was created as an American replacement for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', which has helped contribute to the unfortunate amounts of hate for ''Mystic Quest''. In truth, the decision not to translate ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' was completely unrelated to the creation of ''Mystic Quest''.
* Similarly, Square's ''VideoGame/SecretOfEvermore'' is often despised by fans who believe the urban legend that the U.S. got it instead of ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana''. In fact, the development of one had nothing to do with the other (especially because the former is an American game and thus incapable of interfering with any Japanese game's English localization). It turns out that the U.S. got ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' instead of ''Trials of Mana''. ''Trials of Mana'' would later receive an official localization in 2019.
** The main issue was due to hardware limitations with localization, as confirmed by producer Masaru Oyamada, with Japanese text using less space than English text. If the game came out in the mid 90s, it would have been the largest and most expensive cartridge on the SNES. Even if cost wasn't an issue, the timing would have pushed it just close to the release of the Nintendo 64, in which the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation were already released. The text size was also confirmed by the people who did the fan translation years earlier, as shorting of character names had to be used in order to fit the text within the size of the game code. When localized in 2019, the programmers had to completely rewrite the code for the game to fit the English text.
* 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% of the character designs, but literally 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 ''Final Fantasy'' 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 ''Kingdom Hearts'' series, got a side project out of ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'', and his ''first'' effort as a director for the ''Final Fantasy'' series is ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV''. People also seem to think he only came around in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', when in reality he was a debugger in IV, monster designer in V, and actually designed several characters in VI. This leads to a inversion of this, as people always assume Amano designed every character in games I-IV, and complain about Nomura redesigning Setzer for ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' because he was an Amano character--while Setzer was actually one of the ''VI'' characters that he designed. How ''DARE'' Nomura redesign ''his own character''?! The BASTARD! (Vivi was the character Nomura had qualms with using -- he didn't work on ''IX''.)
*** These kids seem to want MORE of Nomura's redesigns on [[http://crimsoncobwebs.deviantart.com/art/Kingdom-Hearts-Garnet-101167858?offset=50#comments characters he didn't create]].
** He's also blamed 100% for any story issues with the ''Kingdom Hearts'' series, due to his role as director. The other people who have helped write the story for the games (Jun Akiyama, Daisuke Watanabe, Kazushige Nojima, Masaru Oka, Tomoco Kanemaki, etc.) are forgotten.
*** Nomura is also frequently made a target whenever a ''[[NoExportForYou Final Mix]]'' game is released. While he has gone on record for saying that he believes ''Final Mix'' is exclusive to Japan, it's more than just his decision to make it so. The boards at Square Enix don't let any (except for a few) UpdatedRerelease game come out of Japan, because they believe that it would not be profitable to do so. Despite a petition for ''Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+'' to be released internationally showing otherwise. Sony, the makers of the [=PS2=], also have a strict rule against re-releases. They have to have a certain amount of new content before they are allowed to be released. In short, Nomura is only the director of the games, he alone cannot decide whether or not to release them internationally. And he has also said he'd like to release something like ''Final Mix'' internationally, but his hands are tied by the system he works in.
*** Another example of his hands being tied by the system he works in is related to the extended development of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' - initially, it was being done using the Luminous engine (an in-house engine), but Square-Enix made them use Unreal Engine 4 in 2014, which resulted in them having to scrap production and restart.
** What wasn't known until fairly recently was the TroubledProduction and TeethClenchedTeamwork that went on with the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series - a surprising number of it isn't actually Nomura's fault:
*** One critique of some Disney worlds (Especially ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'') is that several of them are "Retellings" of the movies in question. This is actually ''Disney'''s fault - Disney had some pretty strict rules on how their characters can be portrayed, which resulted in some worlds having much more creative freedom than others.
*** One of the reasons behind the extended development for ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' was actually Pixar's fault - Nomura insisted on their inclusion, and Pixar took roughly ''a year'' to get back to Square Enix on whether or not they even had permission.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'''s Hatedom has been screaming at stuff that Nomura had absolutely no part in. Yes, he designed the characters for ''Final Fantasy XIII''...but did you know that he's not even the sole artist for that game? Take one look at the credits. You'd be surprised at how ''little'' Nomura actually ''does''.
** He hasn't helped with a lot of this by somehow managing to have MisBlamed ''himself'' in various interviews before now, though.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'':
** Tabata, director of the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'' prequel with the DownerEnding (''Crisis Core'') and the bloodiest & most depressing Final Fantasy title (''Type-0'') was ''not'' responsible for the DarkerAndEdgier atmosphere of Final Fantasy XV - Nomura and Kitase stated as early as 2010 that it would be this way.
** Nomura was once again considered to have been the one who designed the characters. This is actually only half true - a good portion of characters (Namely Umbra, Ardyn, and most notably Cindy) were designed by Roberto Ferrari - and [[OlderThanTheyThink this isn't even his first time working on a Final Fantasy title]].
** Cindy's original appearance in a trailer depicted her with rather [[JigglePhysics unusual breast physics]], which were toned down for the final product. This was actually requested by Tabata - not the historically puritanical western localisation team.
* There is/was a ''lot'' of confusion around ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre''. No, it was ''not'' a ripoff of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''. The latter was actually a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Tactics Ogre''. Yes, it was made by many of the same people. Yes, Square Enix localized the EnhancedRemake on the UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable. No, Square Enix did ''not'' localize the game on the Playstation -- the mediocre translation full of typos and grammatical errors was actually done by Creator/{{Atlus}}, since Square had not officially bought Quest yet.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' gets blamed a lot for making Cloud a whiny emo since it's all people remembered him for apparently. The Cloud character rarely broods over his past problems in the game and he gains a ton of confidence in himself by the end of the game and makes peace with Tifa and Aerith. It was ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'' that depicted Cloud as gloomy and depressed because Square Enix believed that is what the fans remembered him as, despite the fact that it wasn't even part of Cloud's character in the original game! To give Cloud some slack, he was infected with a disease that affected his emotional state.
* Already in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep''. There was a change in a scene: Where the Wicked Queen made the mirror attack Terra. In the Japanese version, she shouted at it and her anger possessed the mirror, whereas in the other versions, she throws a potion (off-screen) and that makes the mirror become angry. This may actually be explainable...even when people were showing off the Japanese version on Website/YouTube, 3/5 out of ''every'' comment on that Japanese scene was "Wow, she sounds constipated" or "Boy, she sounds like she has to take a dump, doesn't she?" still this hasn't stopped people from assuming they censored a mirror breaking.
** While they made the scopes on the Braig fight look more fantastical and didn't show him fusing his gun into a sniper rifle...of all things, the part where you see Braig's ''bloody cheek'' was left intact. People ''already'' anticipated ''that'' scene to have been censored. (''Thankfully'' not his [[{{Squick}} eye damage]].)
* The infamous "laughing scene" in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', in which Tidus and Yuna laugh like crazy people, is often held up as an example of terrible English dubbing because they sounded "fake". In actuality, not only do they sound ''just'' as fake and over the top in the Japanese version, this was ''the entire point of the laughing scene'' (specifically, to show that Tidus, at that point in the game, can't feign happiness very well). Note both of the characters laughing (normally) at how ridiculous they sound a second later. The other characters thought [[YoureInsane they'd gone out of their minds]] - this would require context, however, when the scene is always brought up completely void of such.
* Some people seem to think that Mallow and Geno, characters from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' should have been in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', and that Nintendo was stupid for not putting them in and instead using "X retarded character" (R.O.B. being the favorite target). This would probably have had some merit... had they actually been owned ''by'' Nintendo. They were, like ''Super Mario RPG'', created by Squaresoft (now Creator/SquareEnix). Even when Geno made a cameo appearance in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'', they stated that Geno was copyright Square Enix.
* Ever since [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud]] was released as DLC for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'' with only two music tracks for his stage, Square-Enix were accused of being stingy when it comes to representing their franchises in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series. When Sephiroth was revealed as another Square-Enix DLC character, Sakurai had the chance to explain that the lack of music was actually due to the rights to the tracks being split between multiple holders, making it hard to obtain permission to use them in game.
* Many ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' fans were angered that the DS translation was less faithful to the original. While this is true concerning the original English version, it's actually closer to the Japanese script. For instance, Frog didn't speak in YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe (or Butchered Japanese as the case may be) in the original script.
* A lot of people claim that ''Final Fantasy Adventure'', the first game in the ''VideoGame/WorldOfMana'' series, is a DolledUpInstallment of the original ''Seiken Densetsu'' to cash in on the name power of the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series. These people are apparently unaware of the fact that the game's full Japanese title, as seen on the box art, is ''Seiken Densetsu: '''Final Fantasy''' [[GaidenGame Gaiden]]''... or just didn't notice any of the heavily ''FF''-inspired elements of the game, such as many of the character designs, the spell system, a lot of the boss monsters, and even moogles and chocobos, complete with the chocobo theme music.[[note]] They may be thinking of the ''Final Fantasy Legend'' series, which ''are'' legitimately retitled versions of the unrelated ''VideoGame/{{SaGa|RPG}}'' games.[[/note]]
* Much of the "new" script for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' actually is OlderThanTheyThink -- the game was released with 75% of the intended script cut. Subsequent remakes have decided to restore some of the cuts.
* The original launch of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' was a disaster due to several factors. The original director, Tanaka, took the heat for the game's failure, though many people also failed to realize that Square-Enix themselves also had a hand in the game's failure. Likewise, [[MemeticMutation "PS3 limitations"]][[note]]carried over from [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI its predecessor]]'s "[=PS2=] limitations"[[/note]] was everyone's favorite punchline for why the game couldn't have bigger zones or more complex graphics. In reality, the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 had a ''pitiful'' 512MB of RAM to work with[[note]]and with its RAM pool divided in half, the game actually ran with only 256MB of RAM[[/note]], which barely had anything to do with the processing power of the console's graphics. The developers went on to say that the low amount of RAM prevented them from having a more complex UI, something they were able to do once they dropped support for the console in mid-2017.
* When Tetsuya Nomura announced in 2017 that they'd scrapped all work on ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' and were starting over, ''[=FF7=]'' Die-hards went about savaging developer Creator/CyberConnect2 (Known for the ''Franchise/DotHack'' franchise and ''Manga/{{Naruto}} Ninja Storm'' games) for it, as they'd been outsourced... over half the work on the game, and had left the project earlier in the year. In actuality, [=CyberConnect2=] had nothing to do with what Nomura was talking about; them leaving the project had been on good terms with Square-Enix themselves; Nomura's attention-split between multiple projects was what was delaying the project and he'd been talking about the sects of the game he was overseeing. ''His'' delays were tying up [=CyberConnect2=]'s development resources as they couldn't do more without what Nomura was focused on, and risked their own financial wellbeing; which made them ultimately leave it after they'd ''finished'' what they'd already been assigned. The scapegoating in this case began because of statements from Nomura in interviews which ''appeared'' to shift the blame onto them, as if all the work they did was actually that bad that Nomura saw it was worthless. Then the game released... and it was revealed that everything [=CyberConnect2=] made for the Remake ''was still in the game'' and actually the parts of the game most people ''really liked''. And the production delays were--as said--all caused by Nomura, and this entire situation was caused by a mistaken assumption.
* Many fans of ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'' have expressed annoyance at Square-Enix for ''not'' dong a remake or even an HD Remaster, only being released on the Playstation Network. The truth of the matter is that it's actually a licensed game based off of a novel and a movie that [[AdaptationDisplacement were unknown outside of Japan until 2007]]. Square-Enix wanted to do rereleases but they had to negotiate licenses. This was why ''VideoGame/TheThirdBirthday'' was not called "Parasite Eve" - they technically didn't have the license. If anything? It was ScrewedByTheLawyers.
* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'''s original fan translation(s) were done in an era where SpiceUpTheSubtitles was the ''rule'', rather than the exception, and much fewer people actually ''could'' compare. When the remake came out in 2022, this has resulted in a few people accusing Square-Enix of toning down the "Adult" themes or swear words... despite the remake ''adding'' much more vulgar language and even using BleepDammit to get crap past the radar:
** In the present day chapter, Odie O'bright talks about how he killed all of Masaru's opponents in rather gruesome and violent ways. He doesn't in the remake, even though he makes it ''quite'' clear that he did indeed kill them in cold blood. Actually? Odie never boasted about ''how'' he mutilated his opponents in the original - that was added for the fan translation.
** In the Near Future chapter, Lawless's move "Pissed Fist" was translated as "Fists of Rage". Bowdlerization? Not quite - "Pissed" in this context was used to mean "Anger" or "Rage" - other translation(s) had it as "hand tech" or "Furious Fist flurry".
** In some cases when there was an actual {{Bowdlerization}} in the remake, people accuse the translators of toning down stuff, even when said alterations were present in the Japanese version as well. For instance, the alcoholic beverages and cigars that served as healing items in the Wild West chapter were replaced with miracle tonics and strips of jerky, while Akira sending Watanabe to [[PantyThief steal Taeko's panties]] was replaced with him trying to steal Taeko's secret stash of pocket money. Both of these instances were changed in the Japanese version as well.

** Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto was often blamed for the lack of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' characters in ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongJungleBeat Jungle Beat]]'' and the general [[DorkAge sorry state of the franchise throughout the '00s]], with the evidence being an old interview where he supposedly bashed the first ''DKC'' with the statement "''Donkey Kong Country'' proves gamers will put up with mediocre gameplay if the art is good." Not only is there [[GodNeverSaidThat no proof Miyamoto ever said that to begin with]], he was closely involved with the creation of the first ''Country'' installment, supervised the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKonga'' series (all of which feature DKC characters), and was the most supportive of Creator/RetroStudios reviving the series with ''Returns''. If certain characters don't show up, it's because the development team doesn't feel like using them.

** The idea that Nintendo created and owns ''Pokémon'' gets the company hit with both praise and anger whenever something happens regarding any facet of the series. Though Nintendo does have a large stake in the franchise, it's independent game studio Creator/GameFreak who actually develops the core mainline titles. Meanwhile, a joint venture company founded by them, Nintendo, and a third studio called Creatures Inc. named "The Pokémon Company" that manages every aspect of the brand. This misconception has even affected Nintendo's stock price at various times, with one notable instance being the success of ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' causing Nintendo's stock price to more than double shortly after release, prompting Nintendo to explain that they had no involvement with the game and only receive [[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2016/160722e.pdf a small cut of the licensing fees]].

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' gets this a lot as well:
** The idea that Nintendo created and owns ''Pokémon'' gets the company hit with both praise and anger whenever something happens regarding any facet of the series. Problem is, while Nintendo does have a large stake in the franchise, it's Creator/GameFreak who actually develops the core mainline games, and a joint venture company called The Pokémon Company that manages every aspect of the brand. This misconception has even affected Nintendo's stock price at various times, with one notable instance being the success of ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' causing Nintendo's stock price to more than double weeks after release... until Nintendo reminded everyone that they basically had no involvement with the game beyond owning the trademark for the monsters.
** Website/{{Smogon}}'s critics near-universally hate on Sleep Clause as "another of Smogon's stupid rules". Sleep Clause is in fact an official rule created by Game Freak, you can find it in just about every console ''Pokémon'' battler. The only clauses specifically created by Smogon are those dealing with Evasion, Moody, Dynamax, and One-Hit KO moves.
** The scarce news updates about ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' prior to release (and every subsequent ''Pokémon'' game since, for that matter), was not Game Freak's doing. Rather, it was because of a new marketing process at The Pokémon Company that required everything shown pre-release to go through [[ObstructiveBureaucrat a slow, convoluted chain of approval]]. To give an idea, a journalist for gaming site IGN would later state that when he interviewed people at Game Freak for ''Sword & Shield'', there were four Japanese businessmen standing offscreen; ''all four'' needed to approve of a comment for it to be allowed to be made public.
** One of the complaints made about ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee'' concerned how the title changed the dialogue of the old man outside of the Celadon City Gym so that he doesn't lecherously comment about [[DirtyOldMan the gym being full of girls]], but instead of strong Trainers. The dialogue change was done first for ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'', [[OlderThanTheyThink 8 years before]].
** ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl]]'' saw many fans point fingers at Game Freak for the various problems found in the titles. Despite the fact that it had been announced from the start that Game Freak wasn't the developer for these remakes, with the job instead given to ILCA, meaning that Game Freak spent months getting flak over a project that they have little-to-no hand in.
%%** [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Pichu]]'s inclusion as a playable character in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' is often considered to be solely the result of the game having several [[MovesetClone Moveset Clones]] due to its short development time, and if the game had more resources, the series' Gen 2 rep could instead be something like Heracross or Scizor. However, Pichu was also one of Gen 2's most promoted Pokémon, and ''Smash'' tends to have marketing decide which Pokémon join the battle. Even several years later when marketing shifted more towards fully-evolved Pokémon, Pichu still got notable promotion in the form of things like the Pikachu-Colored and Spiky-Eared Pichu duo of ''Pokémon [=HeartGold and SoulSilver=]'', the Ukulele Pichu in ''VideoGame/PokemonRangerGuardianSigns'', and the Baby Pokémon (which would include Pichu) being the first Gen 2 Pokémon to be found in ''VideoGame/PokemonGo''.
** Many people immediately blame Ken Sugimori, the lead character designer and art director of the franchise, when discussing Pokémon designs they don’t like. This also works [[InvertedTrope inversely]], as he is also given praise for Pokémon he didn't design. In actuality, while he is responsible for ''approving'' creature designs as per his role of art director, there is a team of several artists that are involved in conceptualizing and designing the series' various monsters.
*** Many people blame James Turner for the numerous object Pokémon that have been in the series since Gen 5. While he is infamous for designing the Vanillite line during that generation, the only other objectmon he designed during his time at Game Freak was the Sinistea line in Gen 8, which was actually [[EnsembleDarkhorse well-received]].
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' features a strange man in a house in Ruto who, when spoken to, says the bizarre phrase "I AM ERROR". It's commonly believed to be a translation error or some kind of coding bug, but it turns out that Error is his actual name, and was spelled phonetically in Japanese; if you talk to another character in Mido, he tells Link to ask Error about how to find the secret entrance to the Island Palace in the graveyard. The ''actual'' translation error comes from another guy in the game named [[ThemeNaming Bug]], who mistakenly had his name translated directly from the katakana as "Bagu".
** The original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' is known for being a BlindIdiotTranslation. As shown [[http://legendsoflocalization.com/the-legend-of-zelda/first-quest/ here]] though, the game's most infamous lines, like "Eastmost penninsula [sic] is the secret" and "10th enemy has the bomb" ''aren't in the Japanese version at all''. They were actually oddly-worded hints created specifically for the English version, replacing Japanese hints that, ironically, would have been a lot more convenient and easy to understand, like "You can't use arrows if you run out of money" and "Look for the Lion Key") In other words, they're [[EpicFail epically failed attempts at]] {{Woolseyism}}s, not mistranslations, so much so that the "eastmost peninsula" secret actually went undiscovered for a very long time.

** Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto was often blamed for the lack of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' characters in ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongJungleBeat Jungle Beat]]'' and the general [[DorkAge sorry state of the franchise throughout the '00s]], with the evidence being an old interview where he bashed the first ''DKC''. In reality, he's quite fond of Rare's reinvention of Donkey Kong, hence why it continues being used to this day. Miyamoto also supervised the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKonga'' series, all of which feature DKC characters, and was the most supportive of Creator/RetroStudios reviving the series with ''Returns''. He would even explaining in a later interview that he outburst wasn't towards the game, so much as it was him venting frustration over ExecutiveMeddling pressuring about putting 3D graphics like ''DKC'' had in ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland''.
** A lot of people seem to misblame Creator/{{Rare}} for the lack of Kremlings in some games (e.g., ''Donkey Kong Country Returns''), mistakenly thinking the British developer still owns them. By the contrary, Nintendo retained the rights to the Kremlings and any other enemy characters Rare created for the ''Donkey Kong'' series after Rare was bought by Microsoft, and used them in titles such as ''VideoGame/DonkeyKonga'', ''VideoGame/DKKingOfSwing'', ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongJungleClimber'', and ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongBarrelBlast''. Their lack of use in certain titles comes in the given development teams just wanting to try something new.
* Miyamoto also receives a lot of hate for the failings of the ''Mario'' [=RPGs=] since ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'', especially the ''Paper Mario'' games. While he did ask that ''Sticker Star'' not be a repeat of ''The Thousand Year Door'' and asked for [[ExactWords as few]] original characters [[ExactWords as possible]] and less story, that is the only major role he had. According to Iwata Asks, Miyamoto even said the final version of Sticker Star was "boring". Everything else was the work of the creative team making the game. He was also not behind ''Color Splash'' using the same gameplay. Similarly, while ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam'' uses the "few original characters" mandate, that was a decision made by the creative team so they could focus on the differences between the regular characters and their paper counterparts.
* The color of Chain Chomp's mouth in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' was changed from red to purple on the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole. Many people blamed Nintendo for "censorship", but it turns out that the color change was due to an emulation quirk that affected the mouth texture.
** The version of the game included in the Nintendo Switch ''Super Mario 3D All-Stars'' collection is often blamed for doing things like patching the [[GameBreakingBug Backwards Long Jump glitch]] or removing the [[MemeticMutation "So long gay Bowser"]] line. In reality, this is the result of the collection using a special 1997 re-release version of the game that made it compatible with the Nintendo 64 Rumble Pak, which [[NoExportForYou wasn't released outside of Japan]] until this collection.
* It's widely and mistakenly thought that Nintendo of America refused to release ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'' stateside solely due to the belief that Western players couldn't "handle" its high difficulty. By that logic, many other NES games shouldn't have made the cut (after all, the trope is called ''[[TropeNamer Nintendo]]'' [[NintendoHard Hard]]). While the brutal difficulty did play a big role in changing the game for Western audiences (with [=NoA=] president Howard Shore personally citing it as such), the ''other'' reason for the change was to avoid the pitfalls that caused the videogame market to bottom out in 1983, one of which was creating sequels by [[MissionPackSequel simply tweaking an existing game and slapping a "2" on the end]][[note]][[https://nesmaps.com/maps/SuperMarioBrothers2j/SuperMarioBrothers2j.html Take a look]] if you've never seen the original game, notice how the graphics are identical to [=SMB1=]. That wouldn't have gone over well in the states. You'll notice they updated the graphics for [=SMB3=][[/note]]. The change was also done since it would take time to convert the game from a disk format to a cartridge and the game would look quite dated by the time it was released in the West. The game's difficulty wasn't exactly appreciated by Japanese audiences either, further reducing the appeal of localizing the title.
* The late Creator/GunpeiYokoi, famous for creating the Nintendo Game and Watch, Famicom/NES, the Game Boy/Game Boy Pocket, and the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series, was solely blamed for the failure of his last Nintendo creation, the Virtual Boy. Yokoi wanted to wait until technology improved before releasing the Virtual Boy, namely the addition of color screens, but Nintendo pulled the project out of his hands and rushed the product to store shelves before it was complete, to fill the gap between the end of the SNES, and the beginnings of the Nintendo 64. Despite the common myth that still floats around to this day, Yokoi's resignation wasn't because of the Virtual Boy's failure; he had actually planned to retire ''earlier'', but postponed it because he felt like if he left immediately after its financial flop, it would leave no question he resigned because of it. In fact, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi didn't want him to retire ''at all''.
* Nintendo got mis-blamed in a big way in December of 2013 when an update by Google to Website/YouTube's copyright algorithms caused videos to get unnecessary copyright claims from not just Nintendo, but other major gaming companies like Square Enix, Capcom, and Ubisoft, and even claims from non-gaming sources like Hasbro and Japanese record labels started to pop up. Why did Nintendo catch most of the blame for a Website/YouTube problem? Because unfortunately the first documented cases of this problem occurring seemed to happen with video makers who specialized in Nintendo coverage, with the news that this was a wide spread issue across all of Website/YouTube with many different companies not becoming as well known until later.
* ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash'' got this ''bad.'' Being a direct sequel to the poorly-received ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'', it's often pointed to by fans as "evidence" that Nintendo is growing increasingly out of touch with their fanbase and that they didn't learn a thing from their mistakes. In reality, development on ''Color Splash'' started almost immediately after ''Sticker Star'' was released, so by the time the negative fan response started to roll in, it was too late to turn back. And even then, they made sure to fix some major complaints about the gameplay.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'''s 3DS port had a few changes, among them censoring a scene with stabbing and notably changing Jessica's outfits so that they are less {{Stripperific}}. Being that the 3DS port was published by Nintendo of America (since otherwise [[NetworkToTheRescue it wasn't going to leave Japan]]), and following a lot of cries of censorship in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', many people in the west pointed fingers at Nintendo for censoring it. Actually, these changes were present in Japan, too - and it was so that the game could retain the CERO rating that it got in 2004. As it turns out, CERO had become stricter on what you can get away with.
* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'':
** There are fans who feel ''New Leaf'' is a step-down from the Gamecube games in terms of writing and character. Rover's dialogue at the start of both games are often compared for those arguments. The issue is, it's not the series decreasing in quality. The Gamecube localization is just less of a direct translation compared to ''New Leaf'''s. The latter's Rover dialogue is truer to the Japanese text.
** ''amiibo Festival'' gets a lot of hate from people who presumed it prevented a true ''Animal Crossing'' game from appearing on UsefulNotes/WiiU. The main reason there was no Wii U installment in the series is because one was never planned. While the next mainline entry began conceptualization immediately after the release of ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewLeaf'', series director and producer Aya Kyogoku noted during the marketing for ''New Horizons'' that they were thinking about it under the idea that it would release for Nintendo's next hardware ''after'' the Wii U (i.e., the successor to the Nintendo 3DS).
* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' sometimes gets complaints from fans that its English localization is a step down from the previous game, being much drier and lacking a lot of the wacky '90s charm that made the first game stand out. Like ''New Leaf'', though, this is due to the localization being a more direct translation compared to ''Splatoon 1'' (and compared to the European localization of the first game, it's more or less equal in terms of seriousness).
* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'': Team Ninja was originally blamed for much of the game's failings. In reality, they were work-for-hire that just did the programming and combat system design. It was the co-creator of the series, Creator/YoshioSakamoto, who was the source of all the aspects that fans took the most issue with: from Samus Aran's protrayal and her English VA's vocal performance, to the story, to the linear gameplay, to the single Wii Remote control scheme.
* Reggie Fils-Aime, former president of Nintendo of America, was blamed for things such as not improving the Wii's infrastructure, for withholding potentially good games for the Wii, and is also blamed for not releasing ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' on the Virtual Console, or ''VideoGame/Mother3'' at all outside of Japan. Reggie had no significant control over any of that, with such things being the decision of Nintendo's Japanese headquarters As for [=EarthBound's=] case, the reason it took until 2013 to be re-released outside Japan is because Nintendo simply believed there was no interest for the game.
** As an extension of this, thanks to FanMyopia, people tend to think that Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo of America are actual game developers themselves. They are purely in the business of translation and marketing, with any Nintendo first-party studios or companies in their regions such as NERD or Creator/NintendoSoftwareTechnology answering directly to the Japanese headquarters (which ''does'' have its own studio in the form of Nintendo EPD).
* In the ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' fandom, before the game was officially brought to the USA, some unofficial translations made the [[BloodKnight Henry]] x [[NoSocialSkills Olivia]] ship extremely popular due to Olivia apparently going "ICanChangeMyBeloved" on Henry. Then the game was released in the West, and the fans went ''berserk'' at how their ship was "ruined" and "made uncute" by the apparent AllGirlsWantBadBoys swing the supports took. '''Then''' Japanese-speakers showed that the translation most shippers based their preferences on was... not entirely accurate anyway. Oops.
* In the early production cycles of the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, it was discovered that a lot of left Joy-Cons had a defect where it wouldn't calibrate properly and sometimes not work if something was in between it and the Switch if one plays it undocked. People were quick to blame Nintendo for making shoddy and cheap controllers to cash in on the hype, but it turned out to be a manufacturing error. According to Nintendo, there was nothing wrong with the Joy-Con itself, but they were not properly manufactured at the factories. In other words, the flaws came from the manufacturing process rather than a design flaw. Nintendo allowed people to send in their controllers for a replacement at no cost and they quickly corrected the source of the error.

* Many people blame Miyamoto for ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'' being rushed and simplified compared to ''VideoGame/DinosaurPlanet''. In reality, he was only the one who gave Creator/{{Rare}} the idea to make the game a ''Franchise/StarFox'' game, with Nintendo being very hands-off on development. The reason the game was rushed and so much content was removed was because Microsoft bought out Rare during production, forcing them to have to scrap more than a third of the game that they had planned to get it out on time before the deadline.
* Like the changes to ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'', many fans were surprised that the rerelease of ''VideoGame/TokyoMirageSessionsFE'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch was using the censored American version in all territories and blamed [=NoA=] for pushing Western values on Creator/{{Atlus}}, when it was in fact due to CERO becoming much stricter in its ratings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, preowned sales of the UsefulNotes/WiiU and its Japanese version of the game skyrocketed.

** Cindy's original appearance in a trailer depicted her [[{{Gainaxing}} with rather]] [[JigglePhysics unusual breast physics]], which were toned down for the final product. This was actually requested by Tabata - not the historically puritanical western localisation team.

* 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% of the character designs, but literally 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 ''Final Fantasy'' 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 ''Kingdom Hearts'' series, got a side project out of ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'', and his ''first'' effort as a director for the ''Final Fantasy'' series is ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'', 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".
** And not to mention, let's not forget that people seem to think he only came around in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. He was a debugger in IV, monster designer in V, and actually designed several characters in VI. This leads to a inversion of this, as people always assume Amano designed every character in games I-IV, and complain about Nomura redesigning Setzer for ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' because he was an Amano character--while Setzer was actually one of the ''VI'' characters that he designed. How ''DARE'' Nomura redesign ''his own character''?! The BASTARD! (Vivi was the character Nomura had qualms with using -- he didn't work on ''IX''.)

* A variation/mixture of types 3 and 4 happened with ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxterTheLostFrontier''. A different company was responsible for developing it, which is why it (the plot, mostly) gained so much ire from the fans. However, if one would take time to watch the credits, one would find that those responsible for the story were the series' original creators. However, the same original creator had already worked on the title 3-4 years before its eventual release, before scrapping the project. Clearly someone realised their efforts would be best spent elsewhere.

* Xbox Live's userbase has been misblamed for the creation of the "juvenile and unfriendly" gamer. Apparently people haven't heard of the theory of [[ForumSpeak G.I.F.T]], which has been in existence long before the Xbox. Live just brought the issue to light if anything. And when it's not Xbox Live that gets all the criticism for this, it's always something like ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' or ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}''.
** Within UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade, games like ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' get disproportionately blamed for this.

** This, compounded by throwing Creator/{{Activision}} into the mix as well (as they owned the ''Film/JamesBond'' video game license throughout that console generation), is also the reason why ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' was not re-released for over twenty five years. every attempt ended with one or more of the three parties refusing whatever the current plan was, sometimes for what seemed to be no other reason than deliberately preventing the game from being rereleased. [[VideoGame/GoldenEyeWii Hence Activision choosing to remake the game instead]].