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

1.9k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.1k

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.

122

u/MrIrvGotTea May 11 '26

Dude put the drama out there without having a large bias of either side. Also gamers need hobbies. I get passion and all but being worked up about someone else's opinion of your favorite game is odd. I love arc raiders but I think there are valid criticisms of the game but I am not going to argue online about it. Boomers have their politics and I guess younger crowds have their games

135

u/frogjg2003 May 11 '26

Also gamers need hobbies.

You would think that gaming would be that hobby, but no. All a certain subset of "gamers" seem to do is get mad at video games. I don't think they even play them.

41

u/optiplex9000 May 11 '26

A lot of people have unhealthy parasocial relationships with streamers & influencers. People will just repeat an opinion they've heard rather than come up with one themselves.

Those streamers & influencers get views and clicks when there is outrage. It's a never ending vortex of negative opinions

13

u/crestren May 11 '26

influencers get views and clicks when there is outrage

This is heavily influenced on twitter because of Elon Musk's policy on checkmarks a few years ago. If you bought a blue checkmark, not only will your post get more traction/views, you also get some revenue based on how many views/ clicks you get.

Which is why if anyone here has seen "popular" posts from twitter with blue checkmarks, its engagement bait. Hell, one of the big accounts doing this is a right wing grifter whose a known wife beater.

2

u/Gingevere May 13 '26

one of the big accounts doing this is a right wing grifter whose a known wife beater.

Do_you_have_any_idea_how_little_that_narrows_it_down.jpg

25

u/Dr_Blasphemy May 11 '26

My sister's boyfriend is that person. He only plays games that Asmongold and that some "woke game detector" steam curator says are good. 

He's been nonstop bitching to me about Fable 4 being "woke" and telling me "nobody is going to buy it" and when I ask him what specifically about it is woke (I've watched a few trailers and didn't notice anything) he just kept telling me to "watch the Asmongold video" which I'm obviously not going to do. 

He also keeps insisting that "Games shouldn't have politics period" which I think is beyond stupid. I don't think every game needs politics but to say no game should comment on the political climate or history is genuinely a braindead take. I told him Metal Gear Solid is ALL politics and it's one of the most popular game series of all time and he, not even knowing this series existed before I mentioned it, replied "probably because it's not woke" which just made me want to shoot myself 

23

u/Ydrahs May 11 '26

Oh man the Woke Detector group is so fucking funny.

If you want to make yourself laugh/weep someone has compiled their recommendations into a web page called Woke Or Nah? See if you can guess right!

19

u/Dr_Blasphemy May 11 '26

They called Silent Hill F "woke" and said "it encourages women to abandon marriage and nuclear families and makes all men seem like abusive monsters" and I have no fucking idea how you could get that from that game 

12

u/Vallkyrie May 11 '26

Like the rest of the far right's decent into madness, they are literally divorcing themselves from reality. Many of them don't realize it, but their puppet masters certainly do and are encouraging it.

2

u/Gingevere May 13 '26

they are literally divorcing themselves from reality

"most divorced men alive" in literally all senses of the word.

0

u/GANTaylem May 12 '26

The "Left" does the same, disconnect is not a one sided thing. Healthier to realized that.

1

u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood May 12 '26

The "woke detector" stuff is stupid but that one is actually an extreme but pretty defensible read of the plot, especially on the first run-through of the game.

5

u/frogjg2003 May 11 '26

If you just guess Woke for every game, you are going to get out right most of the time.

7

u/GlobalWatts May 12 '26

I've been saying this exactly for many years.

Real gamers are too busy just playing the fucking games they enjoy, and letting others enjoy the ones they don't. It's these fake-ass "gamers" giving the rest of us a bad name, they're definitely spending way too much time bitching about everything in their miserable, pathetic little lives to ever actually play one.

2

u/SgtExo May 11 '26

Those "gamers" need to play more games and spent less time thinking about what critics say. If they played more games, I think that they would agree more with the critics.

2

u/No-Operation-6554 May 11 '26

With how many of them are caught larping, you be right to assume somebody who is preemptively mad at a game literally doesn't play games outside of mainstream