Do you think devs will start to make more bad games intentionally?

[Kane99]

I watched a video from Alanah Pearce recently about fake gamers, and during the video she brought up how she thinks video games are intentionally being made bad so that YouTubers would be more interested in reacting to them. Games like The Walking Dead: Destinies, Skull Island: Rise of Kong (both made by Game Mill), and Gollum are a few she mentioned, and this year there was a ton of content on YouTube specifically about those games. She talked about how it kind of took away from a lot of the good games that released in the same year. A lot of those games didn't get nearly the same amount of coverage as the bad games. And she feels she is part of the problem there, as she too has covered bad games in the past, likely forgetting some of the better games out there that go overlooked. 

I agree with her about some video games being made intentionally bad. The Kong game for example only had a year of development time, and the publisher still released the game. A lot of YouTubers do nothing but cover bad games these days.

What are your thoughts? Do you think we'll see a rise in awful games to get more coverage on YouTube? I posted her video below, tried to start it near where she discusses the bad games. 

 

[Ravenfreak]

Every year bad games are created, it just seems like in recent years more and more people are being vocal about the ones that suck so they end up getting lots of publicity. I don't think these companies are really intentionally making bad games, they just aren't putting enough time and effort into releasing good games. Some of these games were straight up ripoffs of more successful games, this is nothing new though.

[Kyng]

I suspect not... those only work if you hit the sweet spot of "So bad it's good" - and that's just as difficult as making a legitimately good game.

And if you miss that mark, all you have is a game that's bad in ways that aren't even funny - and it'll appeal to nobody.

[Kennysplash]

“For our next game, we will make one so bad so that vloggers can have something to talk about!” I don’t think this is the case, due to some factors a game turns out to be either good or bad. 
No one makes terrible games intentionally. 

[Dismal_Bliss]

Not if they want to stay in business, lol. 

[Heatman]

15 hours ago, Dismal_Bliss said:

Not if they want to stay in business, lol. 

There are some video games with strong fanbase. No matter how bad the games gets, they'll still play it. 

Although, it's not smart on the part of developers to intentionally made bad games because they are obviously going to kill the games reputation especially if it's an ongoing game series. 

[Scorpion]

I think it's possible. Bad games create buzz, and YouTubers thrive on reactions. Developers might exploit that trend for attention.

[killamch89]

I can definitely see where Alanah Pearce is coming from. There's definitely a rise in content focused on bad games, and I think it's a reflection of how the gaming industry is adapting to the current social media landscape. But I’m not sure if these games are made intentionally bad - maybe more so rushed to market without enough polish because publishers know they can still profit off the controversy and meme culture. It's a bit like the "so bad it's good" effect we see in other entertainment industries.

[CharlesK]

I agree with @killamch89, in no way do I think video games are purposely being made poorly so Youtube influencers will provide them more coverage (isn't that such a self-centered view by influencers??), but it's definitely rushing the dev cycle and trying to meet market timelines 

[Shortie]

There has always been bad games released each year but they were so minimal that I don't think we even noticed a lot of the time. Over the last few years we seem to have seen more and because of the coverage, they seem to be more than what they were even though they may not be. 

I don't believe game developers will intentionally create bad games to get the coverage, eventually people will get tired of bad games and move away. 

[killamch89]

5 hours ago, CharlesK said:

I agree with @killamch89, in no way do I think video games are purposely being made poorly so Youtube influencers will provide them more coverage (isn't that such a self-centered view by influencers??), but it's definitely rushing the dev cycle and trying to meet market timelines 

In addition to trying to make as much as possible before the game starts losing popularity which is such a short-sighted way of thinking by developers.