The funny thing about BioShock is that the first, oh, twenty or so reviews of it on the Internet were all 90% and above ratings. We’ve been ranting and raving about the game here for the past month or so as well, but never asked if we were setting our expectations too high when it came to the launch.
The game is good. And the concerns people have are not so much about the game, but about the launch and minor quirks. First there was the widescreen issue. I’ll refrain from calling this a debacle because it was actually intended on the part of the developers. Then came the SecureRom activation problems. Finally there was the Steam launch, also known as “Wait until 4PM EST.”
Now comes the news that designer Ken Levine’s thread (citing what questions he can and can’t answer) on the 2K Games forum was removed, presumably by a 2K Games forum administrator. The thread in question was innocuous enough, but certain sites have seen fit to bandy around conspiracy theories about it.
Levine himself has taken up the PR charge, heading to various websites to answer questions about the Internet rage and perhaps, stop some of the bleeding. In the end, though, one has to ask if the positive hype had anything to do with all the whining.
BioShock is essentially the must-have title of the year on the PC and Xbox 360. We’ve been in a drought so long that when a hugely hyped title comes along, people are foaming at the mouth for it. And obstacles preventing buyers from playing their games are a big no-no. Levine knows and understands that.
Who’s to blame? Well, it’s not Levine, though he and the former Irrational Games (now 2K Boston) certainly caught their fair share of flak. Instead, it’s safe to point the finger squarely at the publisher, 2K Games, for the issues that actually prevented people from playing BioShock.
Ultimately, a game’s copy protection, ship dates, and activation servers are all decided by the publisher for various business reasons. And while most of the issues have been resolved by now, it left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. For the record, I doubt sales of BioShock will suffer much. Initial reviews of the game certainly didn’t.
But the BioShock launch should be a lesson well-learned for publishers going forward. Don’t let the hype machine get out of control; it could come back to bite you in the ass. A few more botched launches like that will begin to affect the bottom line — and since that’s the thing that matters most, heads will roll.
