Last year, Monolith executive producer Mike Forgey sadly passed away. To honour his memory, the developer created a Middle-earth: Shadow of War character named Forthog Orc-Slayer, who randomly appears to save protagonist Talion's life if he's about to be struck by a killing blow in combat. It was certainly a nice idea.
Unfortunately, when it was revealed that Forthog would only be available as a piece of premium downloadable content, there was controversy. Priced at £3.99, publisher Warner Bros. said that a portion of the money raised by the DLC would be donated to Forgey's family. However, many saw this as the company attempting to profit from the death of an employee.
Thankfully, Warner Bros. has published an official statement on the matter. Essentially, the publishers apologises for any confusion that was caused: "We now recognize that tying our donation to sales of the DLC was not the best way to achieve our goal of offering financial support to the family and creating a lasting memorial to Michael Forgey. We sincerely apologize to the fans and to the Forgey family for the confusion we created."
What's more, the Forthog DLC has now been made free, and Warner Bros. is apparently happy to provide refunds for anyone who bought it in the first place. The statement continues: "To ensure the two original aims are still met and to provide transparency to the community, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will instead make a donation directly to the Forgey family. The DLC will be withdrawn from sale and will be a free download for owners of Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Anyone who has purchased the DLC will receive a full refund."
It also links a site where you can donate directly to Forgey's family. You can find that by clicking through here.
[source community.wbgames.com]
Comments 15
"However, many saw this as the company attempting to profit from the death of an employee."
Leave to the internet to complain about anything and everything. Sigh.
As much as I'm looking forward to it, the whole dlc and loot box practise of this game has kinda put me off until it's on sale.
The DLC being sold before the game released? I can understand the sentiment etc but why would people buy the DLC before the game is released - unless they were supporting the cause/sentiment behind it.
The whole buildup to this game has been an utter mess. Yes WB probably weren't intending to profit from someone who's passed but as soon as you start charging for DLC in his name you open up a huge can of worms.
@BAMozzy Well this is it, I saw a lot of people saying they'd buy it just to show support, when really, it was clear from the start that they'd be better off donating to the family directly if possible. The whole thing's been a mess but at least it's sorted now.
@naruball Part of the problem, and my issue with it as a whole, is that the "Chairty donation" part? Yeah that's only in certain US States. And only certain US states. The exempt states? All for WB. Rest of the world? Tough luck.
In a matter of months this game has went from "I really enjoyed the 1st one more than I thought, I'll pre-order this one" to "maybe I'll pick it up when the crushingly inevitable GOTY edition is on sale for £15.99"
Mad amount of miscommunication here, especially when people were thinking that sales in only a few states would actually go to the family.
There's no way in hell I'm buying this, used or not. WB are scum, and this was yet another scummy move.
@Cassetticons The sales in just over 40 go to the charities. Its in the small print.
@naruball omg IKR sigh -____- I hate it when people don't like my fav multi billion dollar corporation applying shady business practices too.... friggin HATERS
@PotatoTheG Nice assumption. Try again.
Maybe if the full amount generated by the purchase was donated this would have been more appropriate.
I can't help but be a little suspicious about the intent behind this reversal. There was a lot of bad publicity around this game including loot boxes and the like before this "charity dlc" controversy blew up, so at this point I think they are throwing the community a bone to try to garner some cheap good will. Unfortunately, as any PC gamer knows and most console gamers should, Warner Brothers are a terrible company who have zero respect for their customers.
@BLP_Software I was going to bring that up too, but you beat me to the punch.
@gmxs I was always going to wait for the GOTY/Complete Edition myself. Can't afford to spend $40-$60+ for the game and then $20-$40+ on DLC lol.
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