Definitely. Microtransactions, crunch, and layoffs are pretty much the 21st Centuries' Hottest Mess. Man. What a hot mess.
The difficult thing about Hottest Mess is a lot of the best candidates are often ongoing issues in the industry. The big problems tend to be the most pernicious, so they don't appear within the course of a year, and disappear before the next; they're more long-term than that. Along those lines, the widespread, never-ending crunch that has happened over the course of 2019 is probably the worst thing so far, and even if that doesn't fit the spirit of Hottest Mess perfectly, maybe it deserves to be the pick because it would draw more attention to an already desperate problem in the industry. If we're picking a disaster more specific to this year, however, it's gotta be Pitchford. I've never seen anyone that high up in the industry spiral out of control in the way he has. I still can't quite believe it's happened.
I think the Blizzard/China thing has to be on there. Heck, it could even just be Hottest Mess: Publishers. Blizzard, Epic, EA & Riot have had one heck of a messy year.
On the horrendous allegations of abuse, is hottest mess even the right thing to call it? I mean it absolutely needs highlighting and condemning from every opportunity, but maybe there needs to be a whole new category with Soule, Kennedy, Holowka, Pitchford, et al. Hottest Mess seems slightly disingenuous to the victims of these men.
On the Beastcast this week Alex lamented how hard it is to get 10 games for his 2019 list, and honestly, I'm on the same page. Yet if we were to make a Top 10 for Hottest Mess it'd be almost impossible to keep at only ten. What a state this industry is in.
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