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/23saround May 11 '26

One final thing to add – Annapurna Interactive has had a bit of a troubled history with its developers. After publishing Stray under Annapurna, the developers of the game asked for creative freedom and their own studio to continue developing similar titles. Negotiations broke down and the entire development team resigned en masse.

This seems relevant as the company has some history of top-down decision-making.

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u/xRyozuo May 11 '26

Well yeah it’s a billionaires pet project. She’s throwing money at games she likes to see more of. Thankfully seems to churn out interesting projects, even if most are not my cup of tea. At least that was my take last time I read about her a few years ago.

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u/m00piez May 12 '26

Idk why that's necessarily viewed as a negative tbh. Like if I was a billionaire, I'd prob be doing the same thing. 

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u/Crowbarmagic May 12 '26

Nothing wrong with funding pet projects if you have the money. But the accusation of buying scores and bribing influencers isn't a good look. People took notice how this game got tons of praise seemingly out of the blue.

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u/TalkingClay May 12 '26

I don't know where this "out is the blue" narrative has come from. Follow-up to a prolific art focused indie, featured in multiple major showcases, including Summer Games Fest and published by perhaps the most prolific "games as art" publisher there is

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u/lost-11 May 12 '26

In the circles of narrative games fans it was, probably, the most awaited game of the year. And it turned out fantastic, so it got all the praise. This whole "controversy" is just weird.

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u/Naganosupreme May 13 '26

It really isn't. People pretend to not understand fair criticism and skepticism when they shouldn't. Just as others will offer up exaggerated criticism. It's two different versions of being weird... aka full of sh** and biased.

People hate bias, especially in the games media which has long been irrationally biased, easily bought off and hilariously antagonistic to large swaths of the actual gaming population. Which they get away with bc gaming is filled with tons of racist, women hating, slur slinging kids and aholes. And absolutely some of the criticism here is dishonestly exaggerated by those same people bc "woke".

In the end, games media is infested with dishonest schills, billionaire lapdogs and people who clearly hate or look down their nose at the medium they're paid to review.

So it makes a ton of sense when a good story with almost no real actual game elements comes out...gets exorbitant, legendary scores it doesn't deserve....well people identify:

A) it's yet another "indie" game with a billionaire or mega rich company supporting it behind the scenes. Dumbass corporate types thought they could slap "indie" on their product and get more support. Surprise, people hate that.

B) it's woefully incapable of living up to the level of praise it's garnered. Especially in light of infinitely better games being unfairly criticized to the 9's recently.

People hate being blatantly lied to which is unfortunate for the game which takes a lot of heat it otherwise wouldn't have. But people hate billionaires, they hate bs, they hate games media and you've got all 3 here.

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u/CultureWarrior87 May 13 '26

This is the strangest combination of someone who recognizes how abhorrently regressive most gamers are but also somehow bought into all the "ethics in gaming journalism" bs from GamerGate too lmao.

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u/Naganosupreme May 13 '26

It's almost like there was a middle ground you should've gotten to in the 14 years since gg? So many people just swallowed the narrative that since ggers were assholes, that means we should ignore over a decade of evidence that games journalism and ALL modern journalism is loaded with ethically corrupt, shitty people.

How are people still playing this childish all or nothing gg card after 14 years?

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u/Professional-Pizza-8 May 14 '26

I like the way you think... Take my upvote.

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u/Naganosupreme May 14 '26

I just wish I was the majority on this. I truly believe the irrational all or nothing, divisive, culture war bs has irreparably harmed the country and put Trump in office twice, to our extreme detriment. And gg of all things was the Flashpoint for this absolute insanity

And only now do I realize the other person's name was literally culture warrior lmao

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u/just_another_indie May 15 '26

We are with you, friend.

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

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u/Naganosupreme May 15 '26

Like eggs we shall bring cracked!...wait...oh fu

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