On August 24, 2017, a video was uploaded by gaming news outlet VentureBeat where lead writer Dean Takahashi recorded a gameplay demonstration of him playing the Gamescom 2017 demo for Cuphead due to him being the only one on staff at Gamescom. He specializes in general industry articles, strategy games and first/third-person shooters, and normally does not cover platformers or sidescrolling action games, because by the outlet's own admission he was extremely bad at them. This footage became notorious for the first two and a half minutes where he struggles to complete the game's tutorial, before struggling to play for another 23 minutes under conditions that were made intentionally easier for the game's demo such as increased health and instant access to some stronger unlockable charms like Spread. VentureBeat knew the footage was bad, but uploaded it anyways and drew attention to Takahashi's poor gameplay in the video title, calling it "shameful". However, VentureBeat initially did not explain the full context of the footage in the video description, and due to Gamescom being held one month prior to Cuphead's release, the clip was passed around out of context leading people to believe he was doing a full review of the game and trying to make a point of it being too difficult. In reality, the video was posted alongside an article about the demo by Takahashi to VentureBeat that regularly acknowledges his poor skill at the game; he also called Cuphead a fun game that showed "why making hard games that depend on skill is like a lost art". Regardless, the footage still drew extreme negative backlash and harassment towards him and claims that he was unfit to be a game journalist. Takahashi's response to the controversy spurred more controversy after he accused people attacking the footage of being connected to the 2014 #Gamergate movement, when one week prior to responding, he published an article promoting the idea of a "leisure economy" that stems from game journalists among others being paid to play games, and promoting the fact that he had been reviewing games for 21 years up to that point.