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On April 24, 2024, when the game's review embargo lifted prior to its release, a reviewer tweeted a discovery made while playing through the game, that being an accidental reference to a racial slur through the game's graphics. This happened when a graphic of graffiti art spelling "Hard", a design which is reused in numerous places throughout the game, ended up being placed next to a neon sign pointing to the "R Shop", referring to one of the game's information brokers named Roxanne. Put together, this text reads as the "Hard R Shop", including a slang term referring to the racial slur "nigger". When IGN contacted Sony regarding this discovery, they released a statement claiming the game's developer Shift Up had no intention of creating offensive artwork or including the objectionable phrase in the game, and vowed to remove it before the game's release. The "Hard" graphic in that spot would be quickly replaced by a different piece of graffiti spelling "Crime" in a pre-release edit that also added New Game+ to the game, and would be added to the released game as part of a Day 1 patch. Interestingly, this entire span of events from the term being discovered to it being replaced occurred in less than 97 minutes, and the changes stand in contrast to a claim from the game's official Twitter account three days prior that all versions of the game in all countries would be released uncensored.
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In March 2022, a YouTube video released by People Make Games included various allegations from former employees of Funomena claiming that company co-founder Robin Hunicke was emotionally abusive towards the staff, going as far as to bring up sensitive information about their personal lives during workplace discussions regarding performance. In a now-deleted series of tweets, Hunicke acknowledged and apologized that people had been hurt by her actions, and that she would be taking a break (it's worth noting, however, that she did not respond to any specific contents from the initial report). Two weeks after the report's release, it was stated that Funomena would be shutting down.
However, in May 2022, it was discovered through an additional report that the Funomena employees were unsure if the studio was actually closing or if they had managed to acquire outside funding, as they had started making efforts to gain funds via working as a work-for-hire company for companies that make games in Roblox. The report also revealed that, two days after Hunicke's Twitter apology, she and fellow co-founder Martin Middleton had told the staff that there would be layoffs at the studio, and that it was likely Funomena would have to close due to People Make Games' video making it more difficult to secure outside funding.
On January 11, 2023, the game's official Thai Facebook page posted an advertisement that was quickly met with backlash from the Thai player community. The ad depicted a player engaging in the game due to him not enjoying his birthday party. Entranced by the anime characters' buttocks physics in an erratic manner, his behavior gets interrupted and questioned by a partygoer who gives him his birthday cake with candles. He then wishes for the characters Anis, Rapi, and Marian to appear in real life, and in a vision prior to blowing out the candles, the three arrive in his home and proceed to twerk in front of him, simulating the game's attack animations. The advertisement was heavily criticized for depicting the player base as perverts who only play the game for the attractive characters, prompting the developers to issue an official apology in Thai and take down the ad. However, the removal of the ad caused another round of backlash from a different part of the fanbase, one that was already upset with the developers after a new character costume had been released with more clothing than initial leaks for a winter holiday event had suggested, leading to accusations of censorship. Reportedly, some fans even went as far as to say that there was nothing wrong with the ad for "being honest about why some players are attracted to the game."
On January 9, 2023, a report was released by GamesIndustry.biz revealing that over 20 developers who worked on The Callisto Protocol were not included in the game's end credits, including multiple full-time developers and other key contributors. The decision to leave out these developers was described as "egregious" by one unnamed employee, while another accused the game’s developer, Striking Distance, of "playing favorites" and only crediting those that "they liked or had some sort of relationship with". The report also highlighted the intense work culture at Striking Distance with a controversy involving the studio's director Glen Schofield in September 2022, where he made a tweet about his employees working "six-seven days a week" for "12-15 hour days". At the time before the report's release, this tweet about the crunch culture at the studio was roundly criticized; it was later deleted and Schofield issued an apology, stating that the studio valued "passion and creativity, not long hours." In June 2023, an update was released for the game that added the names of over 50 previously uncredited developers to the credits, a notably higher head count than the numbers in the original report. These credits were added to the "Miscellaneous" group, which originally had only 18 names, and was also now renamed to "Additional Development".
The initial US release of Bubble Bobble Revolution contained multiple large bugs, including palette errors and multiple instances of enemies not spawning or dying instantly. Round 30 of the game's boss does not summon, impeding players from progressing beyond that stage, rendering 70 of the game's 100 levels inaccessible. As compensation, replacement copies were provided to those who complained, along with a free copy of Rainbow Islands Revolution and a printed apology.
In December 2023, a Discord user posing as a representative of the developers of Poptropica stated on the server for the fan website Poptropica Help Blog that the game would be shutting down after December 29th. The account first appeared on the server in 2022, and while the blog did not do a complete screening to ensure the account was officially associated with the developers, it was eventually given the role of "Poptropica Creator" after they determined it was official based on its posting history. Many players initially believed the announcement was legitimate after Poptropica suddenly closed membership registrations earlier in the month. Shortly after the shut down announcement, the official Poptropica Twitter and Instagram accounts decried the Discord account as being unofficial, and assured players that the game would still be playable after December 29th, with all memberships up to the end of the year being available for free. The blog posted an apology for perpetuating the rumors the following day, but within the next year, the validity of the rumors being false would come into question.
On January 18, 2024, possibly in response to the rumors the prior month, Coolmath Games revealed that they had been in talks with the team behind Poptropica to host the game on their site exclusively, with the game remaining playable on Steam and mobile devices. This would later be confirmed by Poptropica themselves through a pop-up message on their website shortly afterwards. Notably, in a blog post expanding upon the news, Coolmath Games revealed that "the original Poptropica decided to wind down", something that had never been officially stated by Poptropica themselves. This would suggest that there was some degree of truth to the initial hoax as well as various rumors.
In 2019, UK bargain store Aldi attempted a publicity stunt known as the "Teatime Takedown", where parents would send Aldi their childrens' usernames on gaming platforms (with the service being provided for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, and unusually the streaming platform Twitch) and the supermarket would send professional gamers to defeat the child in-game so they would eat their food, though Aldi claimed that the effectiveness of the program may vary. Despite a released commercial for the campaign showing children "rage quitting" FPS games, the hired eSports teams, originating from Veloce, specialized in racing games. This sparked massive backlash within the UK eSports community, to the point where Resolve eSports offered to send its players to help kids fight back against the bullies. Aldi would eventually cancel the campaign and send coupons to those who complained as a form of apology. Print adverts were made, but are not known to have been printed in any magazines or catalogues, and radio and till reciept ads were planned.
Flappy Bird was removed from app stores by creator Dong Nguyen on February 8th 2014, due to being overwhelmed by its success and feeling guilt over the addictive, frustrating nature of the game, which he had originally intended to be relaxing. Although many speculated that the game was taken down by Nintendo due to the game's pipes and their similarity to the pipes from the Mario series, both Nguyen and Nintendo denied this.
Nguyen claimed that his worries about the game had lost him sleep, and removing the game from sale managed to restore piece of mind - despite this, Nguyen did promise a Flappy Bird comeback, albeit in a less addictive form, which would eventually come in the form of an official sequel: Flappy Birds Family for Amazon Fire TV.
Some eBay users attempted to sell the iPhones with the original game installed for up to $99,900, but the listings were removed due to eBay's rules against selling technology that has not been factory reset.
In the page of the manual for Bad News Baseball that introduces the girls' team mode, it explains that the girls' mode still shows boys in the cutscenes and follows up with "sorry for letting you down".
In Carnival Night Zone, there is an infamous obstacle known as the "barrel" - a red and white tube that moves up and down depending on what direction is pressed on the control stick, but is animated in a way that makes it appear as if you have to bounce on it to gain momentum - this obstacle has caused a lot of grief to Sonic fans playing the game over the years, and as a result Sonic 3 game designer Takashi Iizuka and lead programmer Yuji Naka officially apologized for the barrel at the Summer of Sonic 2011.