More developers are pushing back against player toxicity

gamedeveloper.com:

There's a subtle shift happening in the game development community: more studios are publicly pushing back on toxic player messages.

Two recent examples in game development have may show that this trend is expanding. The first comes from God of War: Ragnarok developer Sony Santa Monica. In late June, a series of (ultimately untrue) rumors indicated that the game's release date would be announced on June 30, 2022.

When that day didn't come, fervent fans began sending sending angry messages to developers. Some even sent sexually explicit messages demanding information on the release date. 

Producer Cory Barlog first tried to quell fan anger with a message from his personal account, but a few days later, the studio released a statement on its Twitter account decrying toxic fan messages.

pic.twitter.com/fd5ZYp6lxm

Was this an isolated incident? Maybe. But earlier today, the developers of Hypercharge posted a similar statement, saying "it's not okay to hurl abuse at us and demand a release date."

It's not okay to hurl abuse at us and demand a release date. pic.twitter.com/HB8uRtlTTv

This isn't the first time that game studios have pushed back against fan toxicity. In 2020, The Last of Us and Uncharted developer Naughty Dog pushed back against fans harassing developers who were angry over the game's plot. Earlier this year, DICE pulled back from engaging in the Battlefield 2042 subreddit after fans targeted developers with death threats.

Just a few days ago, Return to Monkey Island developer Ron Gilbert ceased his blogging about the game's development after having to moderate an untamable flow of hateful messages from fans bitter about the game's art direction.

We also saw a different version of this pushback from employees at