Hottest Mess 2024: Community Poll WINNERS

I'm pleased to also unveil the official Hottest Mess mascot (image source: Seth Rorabaugh)

In a time of years, 2024 was certainly one of them. The year began with some optimism that things might not be as bad for the games industry as 2023, but that bright side attitude quickly gave way to even more layoffs and turmoil. There were bits of good news as well, and some great games even came out, but I don’t think people will look back fondly on the year overall. Sometimes all you can do when faced with an enormous pile of garbage is marvel at the scope of it and pick out odd little bits that stand out. I asked the community to vote for the most grotesque and nauseating of those little garbage nuggets, and you all delivered.

Here are your winner and four runners-up, noted with the percentage of voters having selected our top three. For the final two entries, I took the temperature on the comments and the forums in general. As promised, there will be a bonus poll dedicated to our winner’s sheer breadth of mess.

Winner: Ubisoft (56%)

Alas, poor Rayman (image source: GameRant)

When given the choice between one of the most colossal hot messes of our time (more on that below) versus a dizzying volley of missteps from a struggling company, the GB community chose the latter to be king of our garbage hill by an extremely narrow margin. I’ll enumerate their messes in the spin-off poll, but just as a quick reminder: Skull & Bones, Star Wars Outlaws underperforming, delaying Assassin’s Creed Shadows, shutting down the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown team, multiple NFT games, and being unable to play one of those NFT games because someone auto-wins all matches. Rumors swirled around takeovers of the company and stock prices tanked in the midst of all these miscues. It’s safe to say that 2025 feels truly make-or-break for the company, and with the aforementioned Assassin’s Creed Shadows releasing in a month, we might not have to wait long to see the results. At least they might not totally fuck up the Heroes of Might & Magic reboot, right?

First Runner-Up: Concord (54%)

Rendering this probably cost more than I will ever make in my life (image source: Polygon)

To say that this game is the biggest flop in the industry’s history might be hyperbole, but it feels like a watershed moment. People have debated how this could have happened with the backing of Sony, as well as what it signifies about the long-ballyhooed push for more live service games. This failure is accentuated by how quickly it was abandoned; a mere two weeks separated the game’s launch and permanent demise. Naturally, because it was a live service game, it can only ever exist as a curiosity for physical disc collectors, at least until some insanely dedicated freaks (complimentary) run their own server for it. Regardless of why it happened, we do know that the specter of Concord will haunt development studios’ decision-making for years to come. Now, did anyone see that Secret Level episode?

Second Runner-Up: GameStop (31%)

Pretend that old GI cover is plywood and you have a preview of every GameStop location in 2026 (image source: Kotaku)

The games media, at least when it comes to journalism (rather than criticism and commentary), is a depressingly desolate place these days. It was heartwarming when Game Informer announced the return of physical issues (disclosure: I hopped on this deal). So it figures that 2022’s finance bro darling and used Funko Pop dealer outlet GameStop ripped away one of the last bastions of legacy media we had. But they weren’t content to just destroy Game Informer; they salted the earth by deleting countless information, wiping out an exclusive cover story for an upcoming AAA release in the process. It was a staggeringly petty move that ruined the livelihoods of many good journalists in the process, and given the connection between GI and this site, one that the community did not take kindly to. We all wish the best for everyone connected to Game Informer, and I think I speak for everyone when I encourage the GameStop CEO to fall into a well filled with black widow spiders.

Honorable Mention: Microsoft (27%)

Ah, the promises of youth.

The closure of Tango Gameworks (despite its eventual resurrection) rubbed many, myself included, the wrong way. But what earns Microsoft the coveted write-in vote is the sheer volume of questions surrounding its overall strategy. The company can claim anything is an Xbox all it wants, but the tongue planted in its cheek feels completely undeserved. As the year closed, it seemed like Game Pass had stagnated (after adopting needlessly convoluted tiers a la PS Plus), the Series S had underperformed, and the Series X was an afterthought in the console space. It feels like every Xbox exclusive will make its way to another platform eventually, so the consumer purchase case for an Xbox console has never felt worse. Microsoft itself seems undeterred by the collective gamer attitude, happy to crow about Call of Duty sales and chug along like things are fine. 2025 might not be make-or-break for Microsoft the same way it is about Ubisoft, but if people are still unclear what the hell the Xbox is for by the end of it, the gaming world may very well leave it fully in the dust.

Write-In Winner: All Of This Shit

(image source: SecurityIntelligence)

It’s tough to pick a final honorable mention given all of the worthy candidates. So let’s just cover our bases and pick “pretty much everything to do with online life in 2024 and everyone who has the power to make financial decisions”. The response to cool-looking games after The Game Awards was polluted by the dumbest motherfuckers on the web, boosted by an algorithm that rewards being a shitbag. Steam is overrun by Nazis and other white supremacists. The most popular online game for children is a “pedophile hellscape” that also drains parents’ wallets. You can’t enjoy delisted games on an emulator because enough of those drew the ire of Nintendo, and they’re vanishing at a disturbingly rapid pace. Itch can get taken down by erroneous AI-generated copyright strikes from a Funko Pop company. The industry continues to consolidate and destroy any studio that doesn’t print money, leading to the AA space becoming a barren wasteland. And looking forward, people are concerned that this hobby may get too expensive with rising console and PC component costs.

It’s a grim situation, and I’m afraid I don’t have anything helpful to say about it at the moment. But it’s good to remember that the games industry, like all industries, is made of people. People not only trying to make a living, but also trying to show you their dreams. To those people, both in game development and the media, I want to say that I greatly appreciate what you do. The things you produce help give this world its soul. As long as this site exists, I’ll be kicking around, updating my Notes app with the latest bit of bad news to post these silly blogs every few months. Now let’s all hope for a better than expected 2025.