Home Gaming Warner Bros respond to claims that they’re profiting over Shadow of War’s deceased producer DLC

Warner Bros respond to claims that they’re profiting over Shadow of War’s deceased producer DLC

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There’s a month left on the calendar before I get my horrifically tiny hands on a game that I’ve been dying to play: Shadow of War. More Orcs, more Middle Earth shenanigans and I hope at least one instance of the player being prompted to press X to beat the rotten fish out of Gollum. Shadow of War is looking fine, but its recent reveal of purchasable DLC has managed to get under the skin of people.

Originally intended to honour the memory of the late Michael Forgey after he passed away due to cancer last year, the DLC character of Forthog Orcslayer is intended to be a Hail Mary character who appears at the last second to save players from tasting Uruk steel. At $5 for a purchase, Warner Bros. Interactive says that each sale will result in $3.50 going towards the family of Forgey.

That’s where people took issue, as the fine print revealed that the proceeds were only from North American sales and only for 44 US states at that. What of the other six states? What about international sales? Where is all that money going? People quickly raised a stink, claiming that Warner Bros. Interactive was profiting off of the memory of a deceased person.

Where is all that money going then? According to Warner Bros. Interactive, it certainly isn’t going to them. Here’s the official light response from the publisher regarding the matter:

Neither WBIE nor Monolith will profit from any sales of the Forthog Orc-Slayer DLC regardless of the territory in which that DLC is sold.

It’s a response, but it’s not a much of a response either, offering vague wording with nothing to back it up. Look, it’s a messy issue. You’ve got to factor in the utter nightmare of American bureaucracy with these sales that are meant for a charitable cause, as well as the likes of Sony and Microsoft taking a cut of the sales for hosting it on their platforms. I think there’s far more to this than meets the eye.

What should have been a touching gesture that would have seen an industry legend remembered while providing for his family, has degenerated into an absolute mess that has the best and the worst of the internet screaming into the void. A shame really, when the idea behind this DLC was so noble to begin with.

Last Updated: September 7, 2017

11 Comments

  1. Kromas Ryder

    September 7, 2017 at 14:30

    WB can go play with themselves. This game is a no buy for me no matter how good it is.

    WB has done too much wrong even before this. Remember Batman? Remember when lootboxes was exclusively for MP? Hell if they could time travel I am sure they would have stolen the idea of early access paid for DLC way before the game even works from Studio Wildcard.

    Reply

  2. Original Heretic

    September 7, 2017 at 14:45

    This is definitely a Transformers issue. There’s more to it than meets the eye.

    Reply

    • Kromas Ryder

      September 7, 2017 at 14:54

      not really. Someone on youtube already did the math and the legality issues and there was no way the money just “dissapeared” into thin air.

      Reply

      • Original Heretic

        September 7, 2017 at 15:03

        Smells dirty. Looks dirty.
        Yes, it’s a duck.

        Reply

        • Kromas Ryder

          September 7, 2017 at 15:05

          In this case it is a pig with a speech impediment.

          Reply

  3. HairyEwok

    September 7, 2017 at 14:48

    So why not take the global sales of the DLC and giving it to family? I’m pretty sure all the game and DLC sales go to 1 bank account.

    Reply

  4. RinceThis

    September 7, 2017 at 14:50

    Eish. Even Gearbox didn’t fuck up when they honoured one of their fans in game.

    Reply

  5. Peet Luckhoff

    September 7, 2017 at 15:22

    They could have donated $1.00 from every unit sold to the family, instead of this bloody dlc clusterf+++

    Reply

  6. geel slang

    September 7, 2017 at 15:47

    More hysteria about nothing. If the game is good Ill still buy it. People forget that game companies make games to make money, no other reason whatsoever.

    Reply

  7. Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

    September 7, 2017 at 21:35

    Come on Darryn 🙂

    Do you really think that DLC and Noble can go in the same sentence?

    If they really wanted to be noble and not profit from it, they would have included this character in the main game, and say a portion of the proceeds from the sales would go to the family. Even if it would be like 5% or something, it would have been a great PR exercise.

    Anyways, why are they developing DLC when the main game isn’t finished??? People still fall for this crap?

    And who buys games on release these days? With less and less time for gaming, we can’t possibly finish all the games we want in time for the next new game, so it’s fine to finish off the backlog before trying something new, and by then, it would be half price at the most. Or, after a year, we get the game plus all this stupid DLC nonsense included.

    Sorry, I went off on a tangent.

    Reply

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