The War Z "Launch" Creates Frenzy

The War Z, a post-apocalyptic MMO sandbox game, was hotly anticipated. Its release this week was met with rampant buyers, making it the top game on Steam this week. Yet the feeding frenzy which ensued may not have been what Hammerpoint Games and producer Sergey Titov had been thinking. On the other hand, after reading, it would be easy to think it might have been EXACTLY what they were planning...



There is MASSIVE controversy brewing over the difference between what is actually in the title as it stands now, and what has been advertised on the Steam store page (link). See for yourself, below is a screenshot of just a few of the claims that Hammerpoint Games is making about its new game:



As you can imagine, Reddit and the Steam Forums went absolutely bonkers, and again, as you would expect - this convenient mark-up of the Steam Store page was produced to comment on inaccuracies of the sales pitch:



The craziest thing about this entire scenario, is the response of Hammerpoint after being called out for screwing players:

I have to tell you, this is one of the worst, most blatant acts of misrepresentation I've seen in a long, long time. This isn't Peter Moleneux over-selling Fable III as the best game ever. Peter just loves his games, almost as much as he loves the sound of his own voice. But this isn't a developer excited about his game. This is much, much worse. This is a developer, claiming to provide content that might eventually be in the game, as if it WAS in the game. Cashing in on gamers enthusiasm to score some dough. There is no mention of this game being a beta (which it seems to be) and no mention that any of the features missing are upcoming.

Sergey - If you wanted to cement your reputation as a game developer on the rise, with a hit title and tons of gamer cred, this isn't the way to do it. If you wanted to cement yourself as a douchebag opportunist - you are on the right track, keep it up!