Ori Image

Update: Mahler has since apologised for these comments in a statement on Twitter, admitting that he had "a bit of a chip on my shoulder" when making them, and "definitely didn’t represent Moon Studio the way I should have."

https://twitter.com/thomasmahler/status/1357445038142324737


Original story: Thomas Mahler, the creative director behind the Ori series, has called out games such as the original Fable and Cyberpunk 2077, comparing them to "snake oil salesmen".

In a lengthy thread on ResetEra titled: "Why are gamers so eager to trust and even forgive the snake oil salesmen?" Mahler slammed multiple developers, claiming they were liars and painting a picture they were unable to deliver on. According to Mahler, the trouble stemmed from Peter Molyneux, the lead designer on the Fable series who was notoriously known for hyping up the series.

"It all started with Molyneux. He was the master of 'Instead of telling you what my product is, let me just go wild with what I think it could be and get you all excited!" - And that was fine, until you actually put your money down and then the game was nothing like what Peter was hyping it up to be."

Mahler moved his rant onto No Man's Sky, citing the game's creator, Sean Murray, as someone who "just loooooved the spotlight". He drew particular attention to how the game went on to receive multiple awards after various updates, which he believed caused people to forget about the "initial lies and deception".

"Obviously there was massive backlash when No Man's Sky finally released and the product being nothing like what Murray hyped it up to be. But what happened then? They released a bunch of updates, so let's forget about the initial lies and deception and hey, let's actually shower him with awards again, cause he finally kinda sorta delivered on what he said the game would be years earlier. Thanks, Geoff Keighley. Rewarding that kinda behavior will surely help the industry grow stronger."

Finally, Mahler switched focus onto the heavily criticised Cyberpunk 2077 and how CD Projekt Red failed to meet the promises they made. After Molyneux and Murray, he claims CD Projekt Red followed in their footsteps and went with it.

"Gamers were to believe that this is "Sci-Fi GTA in First Person". What's not to love? Every video released by CDPR was carefully crafted to create a picture in players minds that was just insanely compelling. They stopped just short of outright saying that this thing would cure cancer. This strategy resulted in a sensational 8 million pre-orders. [...] The product was a fraction of what the developer hyped it up to be and on top of that it barely even ran on consoles that it was supposed to 'run surprisingly well on!'"

The post finished with Mahler saying, "it doesn't matter if the snake oil actually tastes fine. Don't sell me on features that don't exist". As expected, responses are extremely divisive, with some users rallying behind Mahler's comments, while others have criticised his position on the matter due to him being a developer in the games industry. Where ever you sit, it's definitely a controversial take that warrants a wealth of opinions.

What do you think of Mahler's statements? Let us know in the comments below.

Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.

[source resetera.com]