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WWF In Your House (1996)

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Behind-the-scenes pictures from the game's development show that former wrestler Jeff Jarrett did green screen capture work for appearing in the game as a playable character. However, due to his departure from the WWF (now known as the WWE) in 1995 regarding a contractual dispute before the game's release, he was subsequently removed from the roster.

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Behind the Scenes:
https://thecollectorate.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/behind-the-scenes-wwf-in-your-house-video-game/

Jeff Jarrett Interview with Wrestlezone:
https://www.wrestlezone.com/features/interviews/1396780-jeff-jarrett-comments-on-being-removed-from-wwf-in-your-house-before-the-game-released

More information:
https://www.thesportster.com/wrestlers-cut-from-wwe-video-games/

Peter Gabriel: Eve (1996)

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The game's North American release was originally slated for 1996, concurrently with the European release. However, the American CD-ROM market crashed that year, resulting in the intended publisher, Starwave, exiting the market in favor of website development. The game was eventually picked up by Graphix Zone, who brought it to American storefronts in May 1997.

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May 3, 1997 edition of Billboard magazine (pg. 86 of 116 in the Archive.org preview):
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_IQ8EAAAAMBAJ/page/n85/mode/2up

The Obscuritory article:
https://obscuritory.com/multimedia/peter-gabriel-eve/

Code Vein (2019)

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In a pre-release gameplay video from 2018, at the end of a tour of the Home Base, a lit sign featuring the logo for the pizza restaurant chain Domino's can be seen hanging on a wall near the refrigerator. This sign would be removed in the final game, but within the game's files are several voice lines spoken by the game's main cast (Coco, Davis, Eva, Io, Jack, Louis, Mia, Rin and Yakumo) talking about eating freshly delivered pizza in an unusually glorifying manner without mentioning the company by name. It's unclear how these voice clips would have been used in the game, but when taken with the unused Domino's sign, it's believed that this was all part of a planned promotional tie-in that fell through when the game was delayed to 2019, where Domino's would have somehow survived the apocalypse in the game's story and adapted to the Revenants and the Lost.

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Code Vein - Domino's voice lines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNnNoC32N1k

Code Vein - Home Base early gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGhVIQShNz0

The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Code_Vein#Domino.27s_Pizza_Promotion_Leftovers

Skull and Bones (2024)

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Despite incorporating several elements common in a live-service game (i.e. an in-game store, a battle pass, seasonal events, and premium currency), Skull and Bones was given a price tag of $70. Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, justified this during an investors call before the game's release, stating:

"It's a very big game and we feel that people will really see how vast and complete that game is. So it's a really full triple-A, quadruple-A game that will deliver in the long run."

It's worth noting, however, that the game cost $200 million due to its decade-long development, with Ubisoft admitting that they did not think they would be able to break even due to its poor launch. Knowing this, it can be inferred that Ubisoft insisted on referring to Skull and Bones as a "quadruple-A" title not because of the scope of the project, but for how abnormally long it took to produce and raised the price to recoup costs, because this was not the first or only game they called a AAAA title in the past. It was discovered as far back as 2020 on the LinkedIn pages of several Ubisoft employees that they referred to Skull and Bones, the also long-delayed Beyond Good & Evil 2, and later Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, all games with development times lasting at least six years, as AAAA titles in their work experience.

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Quote source:
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-ceo-defends-skull-and-bones-dollar60-price-tag-says-its-a-quadruple-a-game/

Game budget:
https://insider-gaming.com/skull-and-bones-players-total/

2020 LinkedIn page mentions:
https://screenrant.com/ubisoft-beyond-good-evil-skull-bones-aaaa-games/

2022 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora AAAA game label:
https://tech4gamers.com/avatar-frontiers-of-pandora/

Stellar Blade (2024)

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Stellar Blade became rather controversial with critics in large part due to the sexualization of its protagonist Eve. They argued that the game's marketing leaned heavily into Eve's sexual appeal by focusing on elements such as revealing costumes and suggestive character designs for its promotional strategy. This got to the point where the South Korean version of the game received an "Adults-Only" rating due to suggestive images, nudity, and violence. Hyung-Tae Kim, the game's director, defended these design choices, stating:

"When it comes to the design, we put special attention on the back of the character because the player is always facing the back of the character when they're playing. That's what they see the most of, so we thought this was pretty important."

This controversy culminated when the game released with a Day 1 patch that patched out unintentionally offensive graffiti, and censored two revealing outfits Eve can wear in the game, the Holiday Rabbit and the Cybernetic Bondage, but these are not the only censored outfits left in the game. When the player finds their first unlockable Nano Suit blueprint on the overworld, a tutorial pop-up appears featuring a video that scrolls through a montage of the other Nano Suits you can unlock in the game, and among them is an uncensored version of the Moutan Peony, an outfit that features dark pantyhose covering Eve's skin up to her waist in both the base game and the Day 1 patch. It appears that the developers forgot to remove this video when changing the costumes during development, and it's currently not known if other outfits in this video were changed in the final game.

These changes are in contrast to a claim from the game's official Twitter account stating that all versions of the game worldwide would be released uncensored, leading to the changes being widely criticized by players on social media and speculation that the game's publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment mandated the changes after addressing the offensive graffiti. However, Kim addressed the matter during a Q&A at a launch event for the game, stating:

"Understandably we also recognize about[sic] the issue. However, the final costume that we wanted to show you is indeed the costume in version 1.0.0.2. I want to clarify that is our final product. However, I know this answer is not enough to convince our users. There is an internal discussion ongoing regarding this. So I think we'll have a chance to answer it soon."

The speculated tensions between Shift Up and Sony during development were actually highlighted by Drakengard and Nier: Automata creator Yoko Taro, a developer with a history of tensions with Sony, during a joint interview with him and Kim for IGN published a little over a week before the game's release:

Yoko Taro: "[...] Mr. Kim, I wanted to ask you if there were any fights with Sony Interactive Enteratainment (SIE), since they are publishing Stellar Blade."

Hyung-Tae Kim: "(Glances at SIE staff members in the room and laughs.) The people at SIE are... very, very nice!"

Taro: "SIE's staff members are pulling faces I've never seen before. I wish the readers of this article could see it!"

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Sexualization complaints:
https://www.denofgeek.com/games/stellar-blade-controversy-explained/

South Korean rating:
https://en.as.com/meristation/news/stellar-blade-gets-an-adults-only-rating-due-to-nudity-and-explicit-gore-n/

Design choice quote:
https://fandomwire.com/hyung-tae-kim-stellar-blade-avoid-controversy/

Day 1 patch censorship:
https://esports.gg/news/stellar-blade/players-outraged-at-unexpected-stellar-blade-outfit-censorship/

Compilation of outfits in base game before Day 1 patch (uncensored versions of Cybernetic Bondage at 2:30, and Holiday Rabbit at 4:52):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMT6z9xejeA

Compilation of outfits after Day 1 patch (censored versions of Cybernetic Bondage at 1:03, Holiday Rabbit at 2:19, and Moutan Peony at 3:02):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAcvYBGPoGk

Nano Suit tutorial pop-up montage with uncensored Moutan Peony costume (this is the only footage I could find of anyone sitting through this video start to finish):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHJhViruQKM?t=3761

Stellar Blade uncensored claim tweet:
https://twitter.com/StellarBlade/status/1781976139688534449

Video of Hyung-Tae Kim defending update changes:
https://www.reddit.com/r/stellarblade/comments/1cdlllp/directors_answer_to_the_change_in_the_outfitvideo/

IGN interview with Yoko Taro and Hyung-Tae Kim:
https://www.ign.com/articles/stellar-blade-x-nier-automata-taro-yoko-hyung-tae-kim

Fallout 3 (2008)

subdirectory_arrow_right Bethesda Softworks (Company)

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According to former character artist Jonah Lobe, the response from Fallout fans and the fan website "No Mutants Allowed" to Bethesda purchasing the series from Interplay Entertainment and developing Fallout 3 consisted of "a lot of excitement, a lot of enthusiasm, and a lot of death threats." Lobe claimed that while he and other employees at Bethesda were not "privy" to most of the details on the threats due to the company shielding them from its workforce, as a result of the overwhelmingly vocal and mixed responses from fans, Bethesda had to hire a security guard for the first time in its 21-year history.

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Fallout: New Vegas (2010)

subdirectory_arrow_right Fallout (Franchise)

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During an interview with Variety Fair, Todd Howard revealed that the 2024 live-action "Fallout" TV series was considered canon to the games, having wanted to tell an original story within the game's world rather than adapt any of the previous games. However, when the show came out, this lead to complaints from fans accusing the show of retconning the events of Fallout: New Vegas. Specifically, the sixth episode "The Trap" featured a shot of a blackboard seemingly depicting the fall of Shady Sands (the capital of the New California Republic) as taking place in the year 2277. Fallout: New Vegas takes place in the year 2281, yet Shady Sands is stated to still exist in the game without any mention of a fall (although the city cannot be visited in-game). Emil Pagliarulo, a design director for Bethesda, would try to assure fans on Twitter that Fallout: New Vegas is still considered canon, claiming to being overprotective of the series' lore and going as far as to post a timeline of the Fallout series. While the timeline not only featured both Fallout: New Vegas, the TV series, and also confirmed that Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel is considered canon to the series, it did not address the timeline inconsistency brought about by the blackboard scene in the show. This reportedly lead some fans to accuse Bethesda of holding a grudge against Obsidian Entertainment for making what many fans consider to be the best Fallout game and using the show as a way to spite them. However, it's worth noting that there are three other possible explanations for the inconsistency:

• Whoever wrote "2277" was misinformed due to the post-apocalyptic setting forcing many to rely on guesswork for event dates.
• It could be a simple mistake in writing for a series with large amounts of lore to it.
• It could be a reference to the "Lonesome Road" DLC expansion for New Vegas, where the player is given the option to nuke the NCR, though there is no confirmation that this ending is canon.

Howard would later defend the TV series and insist the game is still canon in an interview with IGN, claiming he had an emotional reaction when the TV series writers brought up the idea of bombing Shady Sands (which he also clarified was not a nuclear bombing) and carefully talked through the decision with them. When asked specifically about the 2277/2281 inconsistency, his response was that they were "threading [the needle] tighter there" to make it land in the TV series, move the Fallout series forward, and insisted that the fall of Shady Sands took place just after the events of the game. He reiterated that Bethesda was careful about sticking to the series timeline, admitting that there "might be a little bit of confusion at some places" and claimed that what was most important to them was what was happening in the time period of the TV series.

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Variety Fair interview:
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/11/fallout-first-look

Emil Pagliarulo Twitter thread:
https://twitter.com/Dezinuh/status/1777771276171698423

Article about the complaints:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/no-the-fallout-tv-show-hasnt-written-fallout-new-vegas-out-of-history-says-bethesda-studio-design-director

IGN interview:
https://www.ign.com/articles/the-big-fallout-interview-todd-howard-and-jonathan-nolan-answer-our-burning-questions-about-season-1

Franchise: Sonic The Hedgehog

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Ben Hurst, one of the writers for the 1993 "Sonic the Hedgehog" animated series, attempted to pitch a continuation of the show to Sega in 2002 as either a third season or a movie. He consulted DiC Entertainment, who produced the show (as well as two other Sonic cartoons, "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Sonic Underground"), and was given the name of a Sega executive who wanted to talk with him more about the idea. Hurst then received a call from Ken Penders, at the time the head writer for Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, who had been made aware of Hurst's interest in making a movie based on the series. Hurst offered to include Penders in the project, and told him his strategy for the pitch was to develop a satisfying storyline to conclude the show, and simultaneously giving Sega ideas for new games. This resulted in a long-standing controversy where Hurst claimed that Penders sabotaged his plan by telling Sega that he was trying to co-opt the franchise, resulting in Hurst's dismissal from the project. Over 13 years after Hurst's death, Penders would give his side of the story in a 2023 blog post, claiming that Hurst's joint proposal between the two would involve asking Sega to pay them to produce the series, and doubted that Sega would even schedule a meeting to let them pitch it if Sega funding the pitch was the premise, stating that "the owner of any IP is looking for a payday when it comes to using the rights for their properties."

In September 2003, Penders pitched his own concept for a Sonic the Hedgehog movie, titled "Sonic Armageddon". Four pieces of concept art were produced, and even a homemade pitch video was made to show to Sega executives. From what is known about the pitch (which seemed to borrow elements from both the 1993 series and the Archie comics), it would have involved the planet Mobius being destroyed and changed the depiction of the roboticization procedure to something much more gruesome than what had been previously seen. Notably, several major characters (such as the Freedom Fighters sans Sonic, Tails and Sally) are not shown in either the pitch video or the concept art, and the characters that are shown are given major redesigns. A common belief is that DreamWorks Animation was Penders' choice to produce the film, but Penders would later state in 2019 that he had pitched the idea to Sega only, and that DreamWorks had no involvement. The film never materialized; Penders would later claim on separate occasions that the idea was dropped because of "massive corporate upheaval", as well as the development of the animated series "Sonic X" affecting talks regarding the film.

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Attempted pitch:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201111200242/http://www.sonicsatam.com/information/the-lost-3rd-season/

Hurst's dismissal:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201113070038/https://www.saturdaymorningsonic.com/features/ben_hurst/

Penders on Sonic Armageddon:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201213205554/https://twitter.com/kenpenders/status/1105647131438673920

Penders on the attempted pitch controversy:
https://kenpenders.com/sonic-armageddon-or-what-a-long-strange-journey-its-been/

Pitch video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNteN_qlHp0

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (2010)

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For the game's English dub, Spike Chunsoft requested that NIS America keep Monokuma's name intact. He would end up becoming the team's favorite character to localize, working to keep him both funny and threatening like in the Japanese version. This, however, led to difficulties finding a suitable voice actor for the character, as they wanted somebody that could embody Monokuma's "hyperactive psychopathic nature", not helped by how beloved the original Japanese voice actress was. When asked what Monokuma was like in the English version, script editor Phoenix Spaulding stated:

"We like to think he’s not all that different from the Japanese version – which is to say, kind of all over the place. He’s bossy, condescending, smarmy, goofy, quick to anger, quick to forgive, quick to anger again, devious, and totally lovable."

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Wild Woody (1995)

subdirectory_arrow_right Shady Lewd Kart (Game)

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On April 1st, 2024, Shady Lewd Kart added Wild Woody from the game of the same name as a free DLC character. Notably, it was revealed in a comment on the DLC's announcement trailer that Sega did not actually own the rights to the Wild Woody IP, instead being owned by the original creators. This was further emphasized on the DLC's Steam page, which includes a disclaimer that Shady Corner Games was in no way associated with Sega, and that they were given permission to add Wild Woody to the game by the creators of the IP. Wild Woody's original voice actor Joseph Kerska also reprised his role for the appearance and a story campaign, and that despite the date it was released, the DLC was not considered an April Fools joke.

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Wild Woody DLC Trailer and Relevant Comment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5rt4euYklQ&lc=UgyOefebHRpsBZIVxgp4AaABAg.A1glMtsdAWZA1gm16bux7r

DLC Page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2900500/Shady_Lewd_Kart__Wild_Woody_Character_Pack/

Developer tweet denying April Fools association:
https://twitter.com/datshadycorner/status/1774788107986162017

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020)

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Shortly after the game's release in 2020, the government of China ordered gray market online storefronts to stop selling the game. While no official reason was given for the ban, fans and analysts speculated that it was due to players in Hong Kong using the game's customization features and online connectivity to broadcast messages in support of protests that were occurring at the time against changes to the region's extradition laws. Around the same time, the game was also used by Joe Biden's campaign team to advertise his candidacy in the 2020 United States presidential election by creating a dedicated island and customizable items.

16 days after the election in November, Nintendo updated the game's Usage Guidelines for Businesses and Organizations, significantly narrowing how they could use the game for advertising. This included a rule requesting that offensive content be refrained from being created in-game, along with a statement asking to "refrain from bringing politics into the Game." However, this rule does not clarify what "politics" specifically Nintendo wanted to keep out of the game, and it appears to be in effect for any content created after the update, as it seems that none of the Hong Kong protest content or the Biden campaign's promotional content were taken down.

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Palworld (2024)

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During Palworld's development, Pocket Pair hired over forty additional employees on a budget of one billion yen. Some of the staff hired notably came about under varied circumstances. For example, the character animator (despite having no prior industry experience) was hired by Takuro Mizobe after seeing his works on YouTube, where he posted combat animation videos and fan content based on the game Girls' Frontline as a hobbyist animator. Likewise, the director applied for the role during a Twitter recruitment run despite already lining up for a position at NetEase at the time. Finally, the main character designer for the game's Pals was initially rejected during a separate recruitment drive dedicated to finding illustrators that occurred in October 2020, but was ultimately hired after reapplying in February 2021.

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X (1992)

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X was originally pitched under the name Eclipse and was developed under the title Lunar Chase. The single-letter rename came at the request of Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, who contacted director Yoshio Sakamoto early in the morning after playing the game.

The Lunar Chase name was retained for a planned English localization of the game, which was ultimately scrapped due to fears from Nintendo of America that international players would find the game's presentation and design too complex for a handheld title. Creator and programmer Dylan Cuthbert additionally blamed the cancellation on a presumed lack of interest from retailers in the United States. A prototype of the English version would eventually surface in 2020 as part of the Gigaleak, a massive leak of internal server data from Nintendo. The Eclipse pitch, meanwhile, was released to the public by the Video Game History foundation three years later.

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Video Game History foundation article:
https://gamehistory.org/eclipse-the-demo-that-sold-3d-to-nintendo/

US Gamer article:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190210151024/https://www.usgamer.net/articles/dylan-cuthbert-star-fox-game-boy-hacking-feature-interview

ArsTechnica article:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/10/exclusive-legendary-star-fox-coder-on-series-history-surprise-sequel-launch/

The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Proto:X/Lunar_Chase

Company: Funomena

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Allegations:
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/culture/funomena-co-founder-robin-hunicke-accused-of-workplace-emotional-abuse

Supposed closure:
https://www.pcgamer.com/two-weeks-after-workplace-abuse-allegations-funomena-is-reportedly-closing/

Roblox move:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/07/people-make-games-roblox-indie-devs/

Funomena overview:
https://www.fanbyte.com/features/the-hopeful-beginning-and-abrupt-shuttering-of-funomena/

Second report:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/new-funomena-report-charts-downfall-amid-abuse-allegations

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004)

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In 2012, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie was ported to the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network under the PlayStation 2 Classics line. However, it was taken down shortly afterwards with no official explanation. Audiences quickly inferred that the port's withdrawal was due to the poor reception it drew thanks to various emulation issues involved with it, though it may have also been due to THQ going bankrupt and Activision acquiring the license to make games based on Nickelodeon properties around the same time. Among these emulation issues, the 16:9 display (which was the default option) stretched the game rather than properly re-rendering it at a higher aspect ratio, the audio for in-engine cutscenes frequently stuttered and fell behind by up to a second, certain textures were noticeably blurry due to the game being displayed at a higher resolution than what it was designed for, and gameplay suffered from prominent input lag compared to the original release.

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DidYouKnowGaming video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CJoYsBRwrI

The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/The_SpongeBob_SquarePants_Movie_(GameCube,_PlayStation_2,_Xbox)#PlayStation_3_Port

Kingdom Hearts III (2019)

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Pixar's higher-ups almost rejected the prospect of including Pixar content in Kingdom Hearts III, as none of them were gamers or knew what Kingdom Hearts is or how popular it was. Theme park creative director Tasha Sounart managed to convince them on how popular Kingdom Hearts is, and pointed out that catering to the series' teen audience lined up with Pixar's desire to be seen as an all-ages film studio instead of simply being perceived as targeting children and their parents alone. Sounart noted that, while the Pixar studio members familiar with Kingdom Hearts did not need to extensively detail the lore to those that weren't except when needed, it was needed to be clarified that the Pixar characters would not be meeting one another, or any other Disney characters aside from Donald and Goofy, as Pixar has an aversion to crossovers and shared universes outside of their signature Easter eggs.

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Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (2008)

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The vehicle-building gameplay of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts has been claimed by many Banjo-Kazooie fans, often with an underlying anti-Microsoft or pro-Nintendo console war motive, to have been a corporate mandate from Microsoft to Rare, who supposedly wanted to make another 3D platformer like the previous games in the series. However, this is a complete lie as the only known influence on Nuts & Bolts from Microsoft was that they wanted Rare to make games aimed toward a younger demographic. Otherwise, the creative decisions made with Nuts & Bolts were entirely on Rare's development team, which was burned out by 3D platformers and genuinely believed that vehicle-building was a natural evolution of the genre.

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Reddit posts collecting all of the below sources and specific quotes from them:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BanjoKazooie/comments/grmk7k/comprehensive_list_as_to_reasons_why_nuts_bolts/
https://www.reddit.com/r/BanjoKazooie/comments/gro2kc/child_post_list_of_comprehensive_quotes_from_rare/

GamesRadar 2008 interview revealing Nuts & Bolts has nothing to do with Microsoft's buyout:
https://www.gamesradar.com/banjo-kazooie-nuts-bolts-interview/

IGN 2012 interview revealing demographics mandate:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/22/ex-rare-member-shares-info-on-cancelled-game

Gregg Mayles 2018 interview revealing Rare wanted a different approach to platformers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h9Y55vpHZo

VideoGamer 2008 interview revealing that they thought a platform-centric game would be boring to work on, and was not inspired by user-generated games like LittleBigPlanet:
https://www.videogamer.com/previews/banjo-kazooie-nuts-and-bolts-interview/

Wired 2008 interview revealing Rare thought platforming games stopped being innovative after the Nintendo 64, and the team expanded from 13 to 71 people so they could not make projects like they used to:
https://www.wired.com/2008/05/qa-banjo-kazooi/

Xbox Achievements 2008 interview revealing Rare thought the old movement system was stale, that they wanted players to come up with different solutions to problems, and assumed fans would be mad if they remade a game instead of a making a sequel:
https://www.xboxachievements.com/news/news-1567-x360a-Meets--Rare-and-Talks-Banjo-Kazooie--Nuts---Bolts.html

Gamereactor 2008 interview revealing Rare thought the blockier character designs felt more BK than the smooth versions of N64 models:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn9Il7IKgEI

The Rare Witch Project 2008 interview revealing Rare believed vehicle-building was the next evolution of platforming games, and that Nuts & Bolts was the third attempt at a third Banjo-Kazooie game:
https://web.archive.org/web/20081223105418/http://www.rarewitchproject.com/?id=1655

Kikizo 2008 interview revealing Rare wanted to test the power of the new Xbox 360 hardware:
http://archive.videogamesdaily.com/features/banjo-kazooie-nuts-and-bolts-rare-interview-p1.asp

Edge Magazine 2010 interview revealing Conker Live & Reloaded's negative fan reception caused Rare to rethink a remake:
https://web.archive.org/web/20101015012359/http://www.next-gen.biz/features/rare-vintage-part-two

Rare 2018 interview revealing Gregg Mayles was bored with the formula and did not know where to take it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2QVnSJDAl4?t=3556

Steve Mayles 2020 interview stating Banjo-Threeie is Nuts & Bolts, putting work into reimagined worlds from Banjo-Kazooie is the same amount of work as new worlds, at one point Rare's management moved all but two people from the Banjo-Kazooie project, Xbox Market was different than the Nintendo market so they weren't sure it'd sell, and Rare was burnt out from making 3D platformers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp8n7QKJZHs

Disney Heroes: Battle Mode (2018)

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On July 26, 2023, developer PerBlue released a poll requesting input on various franchises that were in consideration for inclusion in Disney Heroes: Battle Mode. As of March 2024, the only franchises from the poll to still not be part of the game are "Encanto", "Gravity Falls", "Miraculous Ladybug", "Inspector Gadget", "Amphibia", and "Fantasia". Notably, "Miraculous Ladybug" and "Inspector Gadget" are not actually owned by Disney, but appear to have been considered due to the company having ties to each of them. With "Miraculous Ladybug", Disney finances the show through its French division, giving them broadcasting rights in places such as the United States and select European regions. As for "Inspector Gadget", Disney was involved in the production of the 1999 live-action film based on the series due to owning DIC Entertainment at the time from merging with Capital Cities/ABC.

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Initial poll:
https://discourse.disneyheroesgame.com/t/feedback-on-future-heroes/2108168

Fandom article with full list of Heroes:
https://disneyheroesbattlemode.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Heroes

Disney's involvement in "Miraculous Ladybug" (note the article is in French):
https://www.csa.fr/Mes-services/Foire-aux-questions/Informer/Les-chaines-TV/Pourquoi-les-chaines-de-television-doivent-elles-investir-dans-la-production-d-aeuvres-cinematographiques-et-audiovisuelles-francaises-et-europeennes/

Disney's involvement in the "Inspector Gadget" film:
https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/61190?sid=d9547378-f78b-49a3-849f-c315053ce17a&sr=4.67264&cp=1&pos=0

Article about the Disney-ABC merger:
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/05/business/the-media-business-disney-and-abc-shareholders-solidly-approve-merger-deal.html

Alan Wake II (2023)

subdirectory_arrow_right Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (Game), Sweet Baby Inc. (Company)

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In October 2023, the narrative consulting firm Sweet Baby Inc. began receiving negative attention from websites like the forum Kiwi Farms for its mission statement and aggressive manner of "diversifying and enriching the video games industry", where one user described their work on Alan Wake II (AWII) as "possibly one of the biggest scandals in gaming history". This came to a head in January 2024, when a Steam Curator created a list of known games they worked on, citing Sweet Baby's own resume on their website and in-game credits to qualify for the list. While the curator initially expressed that it was not intended to try and "kill" Sweet Baby "or even convince people to not buy any game that they've worked on", it gradually built up a conservative userbase encouraging players to avoid said games due to the studio promoting a "woke agenda".

This group received increased attention the next month after two Sweet Baby employees, Chris Kindred and Maya Felix Kramer, complained about the list on Twitter, with Kindred asking users to "report the fuck out of this group" for allegedly violating Steam's Online Conduct for discussion, while Kramer questioned why the list was up at all, claiming "any game at all" could be added. However, the list had aforesaid criteria, and Steam does not have rules restricting how users curate lists or write review blurbs since they are user-made and intended to inform and cater to specific topics/audiences, with Steam's site stating that curators have no obligation to add games sent to them by developers, or to play/review games for them to be on a list to begin with. What then happened was an example of the Streisand effect, where several users instead reported Kindred for violating Twitter's terms of service for encouraging targeted harassment, leading to their account being limited for one week, and the increased attention causing more users to follow the list. The matter was also exacerbated after it was noted that Kramer was previously associated with Zoë Quinn, a developer who was a prominent figure in the 2014 #Gamergate movement, where they were accused of performing a DDoS attack on the site of startup charity organizer The Fine Young Capitalists, based on tweets they made allegedly claiming responsibility. The list gained over 210,000 followers in under a month, and a related Discord server gained almost 2,000 members. After multiple reports, Steam Support while in talks with the curator decided to keep the list up, but its forums were mostly purged and locked as of March 2024. The curator later decided to start a separate website to expand the list.

Mainstream gaming outlets reported the controversy surrounding Sweet Baby as "conservative conspiracy theories", with several noting that users blamed them for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's (SS:KtJL) mixed reception rather than developer Rocksteady, and accused them of forcing Remedy Entertainment to change AWII/Quantum Break character Saga Anderson from white to black. These claims stem from Sweet Baby having a section in the credits of SS:KtJL featuring 13 credited writers implying a sizeable influence over the story, and a November 2023 article by Game Developer revealing that Sweet Baby story and narrative consultant Kim Belair worked with Remedy on AWII "to refine the character voice and story arc" of Saga. Her actress Melanie Liburd also "offered suggestions and other insights". AWII creative director Sam Lake commented on Saga being Remedy's first black protagonist and having Nordic origins, saying that while "she isn't necessarily that connected with it, there are aspects for us developing this game from Finland that are kind of close to home [...] these different aspects coming together to form a very unique and fresh character in that sense" was a big part of her creation. Game director Kyle Rowley also commented:

"I think that it took us a long time to find Saga. It was an interesting process, we had an idea in our head on what that character could be, but then, as the character evolves over time, being open to changing her based on input from the actors and from external sources really opened things up for us. I think that’s important for us as a studio to be okay with, because we don’t do it very often for our characters, this idea of how to create a new hero character, so it is kind of a big moment for us, and it was definitely interesting for me going through that process."

Rowley denied that Sweet Baby was directly responsible for Saga's race-swap, claiming "It's absolutely not true."

Stacey Henley of TheGamer claimed in defense of Sweet Baby that "all these firms do is make suggestions" and that developers can reject suggestions they do not like, claiming that Sweet Baby was being used as a scapegoat to complain about diversity in video games and "When you resort so quickly to falsehoods, your anger is probably misplaced and unfounded."

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"Sweet Baby Inc detected" Steam Curator list:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44858017-Sweet-Baby-Inc-detected/?appid=1934570

Sweet Baby Inc. front page:
https://sweetbabyinc.com/

General info:
https://kotaku.com/sweet-baby-inc-consulting-games-alan-wake-2-dei-1851312428

Article about the group (note the article is in German):
https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/sweet-baby-inc-detected-steam-kurator-hasskampagne,3409770.html

Accusation of "woke agenda":
https://www.eurogamer.net/spider-man-alan-wake-ridiculous-fishing-devs-speak-up-in-support-of-consultancy-studio-sweet-baby-inc

Employee statement:
https://dotesports.com/general/news/sweet-baby-inc-detected-drama-explained

Steam follower number:
https://www.themarysue.com/sweet-baby-inc-controversy-explained/

Kyle Rowley statement:
https://www.thegamer.com/going-after-alan-wake-2-for-being-woke-really-gives-the-game-away/

Kyle Rowley tweet:
https://twitter.com/TimePirateNinja/status/1764697135344202183

Stacey Henley quote:
https://www.thegamer.com/diversity-consultants-sweet-baby-inc-gaming-worse-live-service/

Curator statement about list purpose:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/sweetbabyinc-detected/discussions/0/4302697419069965949/

Employee complaints:
https://thatparkplace.com/sweet-baby-inc-employee-begs-followers-to-report-steam-curator-that-tracks-sweet-baby-inc-s-involvement-in-video-games/

Zoë Quinn and Maya Felix Kramer DDoS tweets that were mentioned in the above article but not actually linked:
https://twitter.com/legobutts/status/439565200576892928
https://twitter.com/UnburntWitch/status/439565409780383744
https://twitter.com/UnburntWitch/status/439565723996655616

Steam Curator About page:
https://store.steampowered.com/about/curators/

Chris Kindred account limit and archived reaction:
https://thatparkplace.com/sweet-baby-inc-employee-who-tried-to-cancel-gamer-over-boycott-list-gets-x-account-limited/

Curator Steam Support tweet:
https://twitter.com/kabrutusrambo/status/1765907696887173127

Curator Steam Support community post:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/sweetbabyinc-detected/announcements/detail/4128183566040620693

Article about claims of Sweet Baby's extent of their involvement:
https://thatparkplace.com/sweet-baby-inc-misinformation-campaign-about-how-much-influence-the-company-has-quickly-gets-exposed/

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League end credits with Sweet Baby section:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxWTfD9CHtQ#t=4475

Alan Wake II Game Developer article:
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/why-remedy-entertainment-went-all-in-on-saga-anderson-in-i-alan-wake-2-i-

BlazBlue: Central Fiction (2015)

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BlazBlue: Central Fiction is the first title in the BlazBlue series to not feature an English dub for its international release. According to Aksys Games, this was done to ensure that the game would release sooner, as they would have had to delay the game by six-to-eight months if they tried to add an English dub. This lead to a fan petition to try and convince Aksys to either delay the game or add an English dub as DLC, which even included support from various actors involved with the BlazBlue series, such as Patrick Seitz (the English voice of series protagonist Ragna the Bloodedge).

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