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Offline Dremn

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Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« on: January 22, 2018, 02:18:48 PM »
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TLDR; Dave Cox was very upset with IGN's average score of LoS1 and that resulted in a weird blacklisting/grudge between him and IGN.

I'm not a very big IGN fan but I found this interesting.

https://twitter.com/notaxation/status/955491510346121216

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Offline crisis

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2018, 05:30:12 PM »
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lol... that's actually pretty funny & sad

altho I don't blame MercurySteam, they are actually quite talented. They were just contracted to do a job, nothing more nothing less. Except for Enric Alvarez (the head of MS), he had a wacky vision for LoS2 that resulted in a shit ending

Fun Fact: Dave Cox has also blocked Nagumo on Twitter, too. Becuz I think she once asked him "Why the hell did you guys make Alucard & Trevor the same person?" or somethin like that  ;D

Offline X

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2018, 06:18:00 PM »
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Quote
Fun Fact: Dave Cox has also blocked Nagumo on Twitter, too. Becuz I think she once asked him "Why the hell did you guys make Alucard & Trevor the same person?" or somethin like that  ;D

That's very poor behavior on Cox's part. You don't blacklist someone for asking a question. He could have simply given a response to explain why, but instead took the low road.
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Offline Super Waffle

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2018, 06:18:26 PM »
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Wooo Konami being insane and paranoid and petty and alienating the people who make them money.

Never heard that one before.

also: lol Cox can't accept that he made a dumb character backstory decision in a bad DS game.

Offline The Puritan

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2018, 07:02:01 PM »
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That's very poor behavior on Cox's part. You don't blacklist someone for asking a question. He could have simply given a response to explain why, but instead took the low road.

I thought it was for saying "Liar liar pants on fire" when Cox claimed Trevor wasn't Alucard.  ;D

Anyway, I'm pretty sure he did it on grounds of "dropping a spoiler" or something like that. Which is, well, flimsy.

Offline Aiddon

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2018, 11:00:40 PM »
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Cementing once again that Cox is indeed a giant, pretentious douchebag. I get the feeling one glare from Sakamoto shut him up during Samus Returns' development. Seriously, blacklisting is never an acceptable practice.

Offline Nagumo

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2018, 01:37:35 AM »
+1
This story gave me flashbacks to the LoS era because of how representative it is of Cox's behavior as producer: demanding nothing but absolute praise for his reboot while slamming previous entries in the series and their fans. I'm not sure this was a calculated marketing strategy or if he really had such a skewed perception of his own work.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2018, 05:20:34 AM by Nagumo »

Offline zangetsu468

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #7 on: January 23, 2018, 03:43:27 AM »
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This story gave me flashbacks to the LoS era because of how representative it is of Cox's behavior as producer: demanding nothing but absolute praise for his reboot while slamming previous entries in the series and their fans. I'm not sure this was a calculated marketing strategy or if he really had suck a skewed perception of his own work.

I watched one interview with Cox which was about MoF and it sounded like he knew nothing about Castlevania. Judging by his games the proof was in the pudding.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<[Judgement]>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

                              
                **<<<<<SuperCVIV>COTM<<<<<<<<+
                                 ^      l   v  ^    v                 ^
                                 ^      l   v  ^    +<<<<<<<BE
                                 ^      l   v  ^    v                 ^  
                                 ^      l   v  ^    v     BE>>> VK<**   
                                 ^      l   v  ^    v     ^          ^   
            +<<<<<Legends>HC>OOS>LOD>64       ^
            v                           l              ^                ^
            v                           l     BE>> * <<<BE    RE
            v                           l      ^               ^       ^
LOI>CVIII>COD>AR>BR>CVC>CVII>HOD>ROB>SOTN>OOE>BL>POR>AOS>DOS>>>KD
                                                                          v
                                                                         BE>*  
BE=Bad Ending
RE=Richter Ending

Offline crisis

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #8 on: January 23, 2018, 06:09:35 AM »
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The irony is, he DOES know things about Castlevania. His name is listed in the SotN credits, so even if he had minimal involvement throughout the years he shoulda had the same level of knowledge/experience as Igarashi. The difference between them is, he just wasn’t passionate about the series & his games reflect that

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #9 on: January 23, 2018, 06:15:17 AM »
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Lords of Shadow was just baffling. Its interesting how both Capcom and Konami tried to outsource a beloved franchise to a foreign company at around the same time, and then trashed the fans and critics for the poor reception of their games. We usually think of Japanese companies as being conservative and respectful...
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Offline Nagumo

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #10 on: January 23, 2018, 10:27:38 AM »
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The irony is, he DOES know things about Castlevania. His name is listed in the SotN credits, so even if he had minimal involvement throughout the years he shoulda had the same level of knowledge/experience as Igarashi. The difference between them is, he just wasn’t passionate about the series & his games reflect that

He was only credited as "product manager", though. A quick Google search gave the following description: "Helping create and implement marketing campaigns to maximise the sales of games." Which perfectly fits how he always came across as to me: somebody who's job it is to sell a product. This is also IGA's job but he was always heavily involved with on the production side, and from interviews you could tell he was very knowledgeable and passionate about the series.

Offline Gunlord

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #11 on: January 23, 2018, 03:06:50 PM »
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I try not to be too harsh on Cox, but Lord, that is remarkably unprofessional behavior.

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Offline Aiddon

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #12 on: January 23, 2018, 08:04:40 PM »
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Lords of Shadow was just baffling. Its interesting how both Capcom and Konami tried to outsource a beloved franchise to a foreign company at around the same time, and then trashed the fans and critics for the poor reception of their games. We usually think of Japanese companies as being conservative and respectful...

That was a weird time in gaming. Both were made during times when Japanese companies were (unfairly) getting slammed left and right constantly while Western companies could do no wrong (in spite of constant studio closures). It was like being back in the Reagan era where Japanaphobia ran rampant and thus anything indicative of Japan was looked down upon. The two games were run as essentially smear campaigns, painting critics as straw men and even saying how the old entries were never good in the first place. It's a weird tactic to take when marketing a title and it backfired.

I would say whatever the hell Ninja Theory was trying to with DMC was the weirder of the two, because the DMC series was still going strong with Dante being a gaming icon and DMC 4 being a critical and commercial success. The thing that was really head tilting was not only how the Tamtam (the director) was constantly getting into feuds on Twitter, but that the press actively bent over backwards to deflect criticism from NT. What. The. Hell? That was just odd and it made the resulting fallout of the game nosediving look embarrassing for the press.

As for LoS, Cox clearly had no clue what he was doing. His interviews were always bringing up the pre-SOTN entries, but he clearly didn't realize those entries were platformers, not hack and slash. The press gobbled up LoS, but it didn't last because by the time LoS 2 was rolling out the MetroidVania genre had cemented itself as a go-to template for indie studios, meaning that MercurySteam now had to deal with some serious identity crisis and the fact that their approach was obsolete. And we all know how that went down. Critical and commercial flop to be left in the dustbin of history and Cox is now a laughingstock.

At the end of the day, those incidents seem really uncomfortable now. They've both been used as industry punching bags while Dante continues to endure as a cultural icon and Iga had one of the biggest gaming Kickstarters in history while the Netflix series drew upon the classic Castlevania lore and aesthetic, not whatever the hell LoS was trying to do. The smears against Japanese devs from back then also look really uncomfortable now, especially considering how last year brought a MONSTER selection of Japanese titles like Nioh, Yakuza 0/Kiwami, Persona 5, Nier: Automata, Super Mario Odyssey, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Goes to show that chasing after trends is a fool's errand
« Last Edit: January 25, 2018, 06:30:11 AM by Aiddon »

Offline Super Waffle

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #13 on: January 24, 2018, 04:52:17 PM »
-2
You had me until you implied Breath of the Wild is a good thing.

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Re: Konami/Dave Cox blacklisted IGN over LoS review score
« Reply #14 on: January 24, 2018, 07:15:49 PM »
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You had me until you implied Breath of the Wild is a good thing.

How was it not a good thing? It was different from previous entries, but to me it captured that same sense of exploration and wonder that OoT did, but went about it in an entirely different way. Breath of the Wild is a good example of how to reinvent a franchise while keeping its spirit intact. Compare that to Lords of Shadow, which ditched the entire aesthetic of its franchise.

Speaking of the Netflix series, I really hope we can get another Castlevania reboot drawing from the TV show. Its been remarkably successful, and has drawn a number of new people to the franchise.
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