GamerBraves Newsletter vol. 42 – The Problem With The Idea of The Auteur in Gaming

A couple of weeks ago Sonic The Hedgehog Creator and video game “auteur” Yuji Naka made a Twitter thread regarding his latest game: ‘Balan Wonderworld’ considered one of the worst games of 2021.

He said that he was pulled from his position as the game’s director six months before the game was complete for simply trying to improve the title. The developer Arzest submitted the game with bugs that he wanted to be removed, however, publisher Square Enix said no.

This caused him to file a lawsuit against Square Enix who he said: “don’t care about games or their fans.” When you hear stories like this, you can’t help but sympathize with the struggling director. This game was his baby, he was just trying to make it better only to be squashed down by the higher-ups of a shady corporate business. But is this the entire story?

We hear many stories like this. Auteurs struggling against large corporations stopping them from achieving their vision of a game. But is this the full story? That’s what we talk about in this week’s Newsletter: The problematic idea of the gaming auteur. Give it a read for free by putting your email address in the box below.

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