The biggest gaming controversies of 2023

polygon.com:

Video games run the gamut from silly toys for babies to life-altering works of art, all of which make up an industry that rakes in billions of dollars a year. Of course, the endlessly consumptive nature of the business can’t help but produce controversy, and 2023 had its share of milestones.

Let’s look back at some of the most drama-filled video game controversies of the last year.

Hogwarts Legacy was, on paper, a dream come true for gamers of a certain age. But thanks to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling continually courting ire for her views on trans politics, the open-world adventure was controversial as soon as it was revealed. As such, the discontent over Rowling’s connection to Hogwarts Legacy simmered under the surface for years until becoming a rolling boil when the game finally arrived in February 2023.

The ensuing debate was ugly and chaotic, consuming social media for months despite the game having, by most accounts, little to offer anyone not all-in on Harry Potter nostalgia. Despite Hogwarts Legacy being one of the year’s major blockbusters, after release, the controversy just sort of… faded away. The game received zero nominations at The Game Awards and, for the most part, everyone’s moved on to other, more engagement-lucrative skirmishes in the internet’s seemingly infinite culture war battlegrounds. Let’s all hope publisher Warner Bros. has decided to wash its hands of the whole thing rather than ring the bell for round two.

French developer DRAMA lived up to its name when co-founder Alexandre Spindler set social media ablaze with just a little over two minutes of gameplay from the previously unknown studio’s upcoming first-person shooter Unrecord in April 2023. The video was (and frankly still is) an