Big does not mean Smart

It's been a tumultuous start of 2019 for the biggest boys in the video game playground.

EA's flagship Battlefield V had undersold like crazy, with pre-orders lagging 85% behind its main competitor Call of Duty, and that's only the start of that games problems, as player numbers are reportedly abysmal.

Bethesda keeps floundering about like a drunk elephant. Back in December, I talked about the bag controversy, their refund issues and their accidental leak of sensitive customer information.

Now, it keeps going. In the new years patch, they broke essential parts of the game, though they are now fixed, but not before tired players dubbed it Y2K19.

Then there is the Nuka Dark issue. In Fallout there exists a drink called Nuka Dark, which is essentially a 35% alcoholic coke, and in November (I believe), they announced the real world Nuka Dark product, a bottle of rum that looked like the in-game bottle. Together with shipping it clocked in at about $100, but when fans finally got it, they were outraged to find that it was a cheap plastic shell around a normal bottle, containing an equally cheap rum. Maybe not a case of false advertising, but certainly misleading. It wasn't stated anywhere that this was the products true nature, so in the absence of contradicting information, it was natural for people to assume the bottle itself would be glass in the iconic Nuka-Cola shape. Needless to say, but I'm saying it anyway, no one is happy about this.

Then we turn to Blizzard-Activision. Within a week (more or less) both parts of the game giant lost their Chief Financial Officers. The Activision CFO left to take up the same position at Netflix and shortly thereafter, the Blizzard CFO also quit. One wonders why?

Then came the big shocker: Bungie split with Activision and took the Destiny IP with them. In case you didn't know, Bungie developed the (mostly) beloved Halo franchise with Microsoft, before starting their multiplayer sci-fi shooter Destiny. They then partnered with Activision, and the controversies started rolling in.

Now, free from Activision, and popping champagne bottles in the office, Bungie is free to do what they want. However, they would do well to remember that they can't hide behind Activision anymore so any and all screw-ups are theirs to own.

Last year at the controversial Blizzcon, they talked about their E-Sports scene and how well it was doing and how it would grow in 2019. Six weeks later they axed all support for Heroes of the Storm. Preceding this move was a survey that looked at what people felt about the game. Now, a survey is circulating concerning Hearthstone, their Warcraft themed card game. Is Hearthstone next on the chopping block? In either case, Blizzards now former CFO warned before she left, that costs had to be cut. Ominous news for Hearthstone fans.

Finally, fans of the Alien franchise were excited when the official Twitter account started teasing a new game in the franchise. The tease seemed to hint at a sequel to Alien: Isolation, but then the bomb dropped when it was announced that the game in question is Alien Blackout, a mobile game. Naturally, people were pissed again. Apparently 20^th Century Fox is as clueless as Blizzard-Activision when it comes to the western video game market: we don't want mobile games. By all means, sell them in Asia and to whoever else wants them, but stop announcing them as a big deal to PC and console gamers, please.

That's that though. Join me again next time for more Eccentric Spheres and until then, have a great week!