
Don't Nod creative director Michel Koch has reacted to some of the "hateful" comments directed at Deck Nine employees for their take on the Life is Strange franchise in Double Exposure. Dontnod Entertainment, the publisher's development studio, made the mainline games in the franchise, while Deck Nine was previously responsible for spin-offs in the series like Before the Storm and True Colors.
Double Exposure is out today, 29th October, on PS5, and you can check out our review if you're interested. On X, before the game's official launch, Koch wrote in response to the "tension and hateful messages" that followed leaks made possible by publisher Square Enix's decision to release several episodes into Early Access.
Admitting that he hasn't actually played the game yet, Koch (thanks, Eurogamer) nevertheless says that "nothing justifies hating on people for how they wrote their game", a sentiment we'd support. When one punter asserted that the characters Koch and the original team had created had been "butchered", Koch continued: "From what I read, I think we would not have written things the same way. But I felt the same with the comics and before the storm, and I kind of accepted it. I’m pretty sure when I play the full game, I won’t recognize my characters, but that’s also inevitable with different writers."
Will you be taking a chance on Life is Strange: Double Exposure? What do you think of Koch's take? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source x.com]
Comments 26
This is sorta the problem with completely separate studios doing sequels, it gives such a target on the back of the devs if it doesn’t pan out and there’s a large enough fandom from the original release. I dunno, this level of hate is never ok but pretty much all the blame has been levelled at Deck Nine and there’s not exactly anywhere for it to go.
At first I thought it was the usual suspects coming in hating the game for the themes that they don't like but I was surprised to find out that the hate and vitriol is coming from their own community. I guess it's all two sides of the same coin.
Removed - inappropriate
This seems to be a pretty polarising game - on the one hand there’s this ‘hate’ and a mightily unimpressed review from this site, but I’ve also seen glowing reviews saying it’s one of the best LiS games yet.
I remember the first game had a similar response, so I’ll definitely be checking the game out and seeing for myself!
Game studios seriously need to start owning up to their mediocre writing, game design and vision....
Instead of seeing EVERY SINGLE THING as goddamn hate speech. Absolute lunatics.
I'm tired of seeing fans being called all kinds of -isms and -phobes.
Definitely silly to be reacting with hate, though I suppose that’s the risk with fandom. If you want an audience to truly love your world and characters, the passion can end up cutting both ways. I think we need to realise, especially for media that’s not coming off an unresolved prior work, that we can still love the original. If it’s that bad, pretend the sequel doesn’t exist.
@McTwist maybe players should stop acting hateful then they would not be calling bigotry or homophobic or any other word if u going to be hateful people are going to call u what u are.
@C25CLOUD
Christ almighty. Get off reddit buddy.
You know damn well these people release garbage and hide from criticism behind all these accusations. It's always the same story.
Disney does it, Sony, MS, Ubisoft. They all do it. They refuse criticism and call their whole fanbase all kinds of vile names when their stupid little crappy product doesn't sell instead of ever taking responsibility
@McTwist 100%
@khayl " the characters Kock and the original team had created "
Uuuuuuuhhhhmmm.... 😒
I'm one of those that didn't think the first was THAT amazing and apparently picked the less popular ending. Appreciated the themes it dealt with but it was also corny af. So I'm definitely willing to give this one a chance if they took a different direction. Definitely waiting for a sale though just to be safe.
I'm sure the comments like always are just valid criticism getting labelled hate by the activists with thin skin that now larp as game devs and hate gamers.
I’ve never used twitter so this is the first I’m seeing of this. Saying a game butchered a character is not hateful. I find myself caring less and less about complaints like this as I get older. Only narcissists need constant, unconditional praise for everything they do.
Soon I won't be able to fart in my own house cos Alexa will scold me.
Not sure what this one person on X was talking about but I cannot find much "controversy" about the characters on the internet. If anything, they may be upset that Max's girlfriend Chloe did not make it into this game. Anti-Wokers don't care about this game even as much as usual and Pro-Wokers are not even arguing with anyone that is remotely anti-woke so this cannot be the issue. One reviewer said that Max is a snoopy little b**ch and has no respect for anyone's privacy to which a commenter said that is exactly how she was in the first game.
Not sure what we are arguing about here in this comment section but I don't think, the dialogue around this game, is a so-called "culture war" thing.
By "hateful" did he actually mean "critical" ?
@McTwist If you launch on X then you are doomed anyway. And yes the site is full of homophobic, racist and sexist it's a hell hole of garbage there. The amount of garbage that is spewed there is shocking.
@Thumper
No, he means hateful. Criticism is one thing and as we all have an opinion (for better or worse) it should be expressed. What this guy is talking about is threatening messages and hate speech directed at the development team.
@KidRisky Go on Twitter and see what kind of site it is. It's up there with 4chan at the moment he moment Musk made it a Hell hole of racism, homophobic and every other garbage around.
@Flaming_Kaiser Why would I go on Twitter for any reason? Getting angry all day is unhealthy.
Well, supporting Deck Nine first then answering further quesitons with "I wouldn't do it like that" makes whole thing meaningless. If you are showing support at least say something like "I respect their choices" etc.
Criticism ≠ Hate
@McTwist Finally, some common sense around here.
@KidRisky It's sad that it's easy to manipulate people into fighting their losing battle. In the end, consumers win over big corps. If you want consumers to buy your games, then make a good one and lay off the phobes and isms.
@KidRisky And you are right why would you its like something you can't unsee how insanely dispicable people can act.
@JonnyWeirdoLGW Nonsense some critism is nothing but hate. Some things are so nasty the only reason someone could excuse some of this stuff is if they are racist, homophobe, sexist. Not everything is normal.
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