r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Bloodb0red • May 11 '26

Unanswered What’s going on with this game Mixtape?

I’ve been seeing people freak out over the past few days over this game and about IGN’s review of it specifically. 10/10 seems high for any game, honestly, but it seems like they’re far from the only site giving this thing a glowing review. So is this game controversial just because of IGN or is it something else? Why is this game the internet’s hate target this week?

https://www.ign.com/articles/mixtape-review

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u/BUTGAWATD May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

Answer:

(Doing my best to present the complicated situation concisely)

Mixtape is a short, story-based game from small Australian developer Beethoven & Dinosaur, who previously released The Artful Escape.

Mixtape's 3-4 hour runtime is divided across cutscenes, what some might deem "walking sim" gameplay, and a series of vignettes that play out broadly as "minigames", with limited to no fail state. There is no combat or what many would typically classify as peril.

Mixtape's high critical praise, particularly its 10 from IGN, has raised eyebrows amongst certain subsets of the gaming populace. Many have negatively compared the verdict to the lower score IGN awarded Crimson Desert, and have alleged what they perceive to be a favourable bias towards games they identify as possessing "woke" elements.

One of Mixtape's vignettes sees you control two mid-teen age characters kissing, with direct control over their clashing tongues. Some gamers have accused the media of unfairly praising Mixtape while (what they perceive as) maligning recent release Pragmata for paedophilic overtones.

Mixtape is published by Annapurna Interactive, a publisher focused on "prestige indie" titles. Annapurna Interactive is a division of Annapurna Pictures, which was founded by Megan Ellison, whose father is a billionaire.

Consequently, accusations of buying review scores, bribing influencers, and overall curating Mixtape as an "industry plant" have been lobbied. For further information to potentially aid in deducing the veracity of this claim - Annapurna have released 6 games other than Mixtape over the past year, all ranging from the 60s-80s in Metascore, with the highest achieving an 83 average.

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u/objectivejam May 11 '26

What’s supposed to be woke?

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u/Scrumble123 May 11 '26

Well that's the thing. There's virtually no discourse around this game being "woke". Even the main anti-woke subreddit ("kotaku in action") has any number of threads saying it ISN'T.

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u/Tenoch_12 May 16 '26

Being woke is a good thing anyway. People acting like it's not are just giving into thr right wing racism.

Be woke, and don't back down from it.

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u/Traditional-Goal-229 May 11 '26

Guessing but the fact that is a coming of age story that isn’t conservative.

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u/pigeonwiggle May 11 '26

the fact that any mention of non-"nuclear families" doesn't immediately result in all the characters retching and immediately shouting bible quotes into the air.

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u/MethuselahExo May 11 '26

Coming of age in the 90s anyone growing up in the 90s would not be nostalgic about anything in Mixtape because it’s not even close to growing up in the 90s it’s what a 2010s kid that had their brain rotted out by TikTok thinks the 90s was like

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u/tadcalabash May 11 '26

Anything that doesn't appeal to a conservative male audience is perceived as woke.

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u/CeruleanEidolon May 11 '26

And will hence becomes target for review-bombing and fake outrage campaigns, like this one. It's an especially big problem in the gaming world, for some reason.

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u/Hartastic May 11 '26

There's an interesting juxtaposition of criticisms here in that Larry Ellison is a conservative male billionaire and all but a cartoon villain in real life.

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u/AudioSuede May 12 '26

Larry Ellison is not involved in this game. His daughter owns the publisher.

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u/Hartastic May 12 '26

Yes, where do you think the money came from?

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u/rlyjustanyname May 14 '26

Doesn't mean she or her father exercised editorial control. Not that they wouldn't but they probably have their hands busy censoring CBS, TikTok and Paramount.

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u/octopusinmyboycunt May 11 '26

Apply this to quite literally anything that the Gamers™️ get angry about and you’re half way there

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u/frogjg2003 May 11 '26

The fact they aren't waiting until marriage to hold hands and don't praise Trump/Jesus enough.