Over my morning coffee today, I saw a sight that didn’t fill me with joy. It was a video captured of someone working in landfill, looking over a pile of Forspoken steelbook cases – at what is essentially their final resting place.
Given the turbulent recent history of the game, it was a Tweet that did a lot to remind me of just how volatile the realm of game development can be:
This hurts to see… No game deserves this. Not even #Forspoken.
— Niko (@NikoMueller) March 6, 2023
It is still a little stunning to track just how rapidly Forspoken leapt from an interesting future entity, to a divisive one. It’s 2021 reveal had many stunned at how full of braggadocio it was – showing an inner city girl with a vocabulary to match. It then sped into criticism with many raising an eyebrow at it’s quippy social media campaign (“I’ll probably fly next”) and finally released to a critically average set of scores.
Which brings us to now. The game has already seen a round of discounts on varying platforms, and the developer Luminous Productions is being merged into the amorphous blob that is Square Enix. Discounting the initial reveal, the actual timeline of excitement shifting to abject ‘Meh’ (We gave it a 6.5) and the entire entity that developed the game disappearing is extremely short – it’s quite terrifying. And now here we are, viewing the games accessories amongst the refuse – with anonymous commenters decrying that it’s where the entire game belongs.
Game development is such a massive process, covering so many creative processes and individuals that channel these creative juices, that I can’t help but just feel a little sad for everyone involved. Forspoken was not a game that deserved ire, it was a middling product that could be polarising – and for some it was downright fun. I still intend to play the game (although I admit I expect it to be free on some platform sooner rather than later) but it’s fate feels a tad more cruel than I’d have expected.
And I know these are just steelbooks, likely surplus to requirements and obviously destined to end up as waste eventually – it is more the attitude surrounding their appearance that prompted a comment.
Have you played Forspoken? How do you feel about it’s fate? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.
